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Epochs of History 

EDITED BY 

EDWARD E. MORRIS, M.A. 



THE ERA 

OF 

THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 



F. SEEBOHM 



THE COMMERCE OF CHRISTENDOM 



THE MAIN LINES OFTRADE 

(Med) 

THE DISTRICT OF THE HANSE 

& FREE GERMAN TOWNS 

(Xb"ipedJ&cL } 



-Antwerp A Bruges 
the Centres of* the 
WoollettJIa/iufcuturLru/ 
District XoftJuf 
C-ommerce of 
Cftristendi 




Cologne .■*-> ^ 



* % 



MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS. 



Woollen 



Linen 



Blue Supplied with Wool from England, Spain 
and Hesse, and Corn from France and the 
ports on the Baltic— Exporting Woollen 
goods all over Christendom, 

Green In close connection with the Woollen. 

Yellow In Italy, Sicily, Catalonia, Lyons, <tc. 
These Districts supplied with Woollen 
goods from the north by sea and by the 
Overland Commerce through Germany to 
Venice. 



THE ERA 



OF THE 



PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 



BY 



FREDERIC SEEBOHM 



AUTHOR OF 



' THE OXFORD REFORMERS— COLET, ERASMUS, AND MORE* 

SECOND EDITION 

With Notes on Books in Engl-sh relating to the Reformation, 

by Geo. P. Fisher, D.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical 

History in Yale College, author of "History 

of the Reformation," &c. 



NEW YOKE: 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 

1888. 



*\V 



•7 



fo 



& 22 1§W t 



SUMMARY. 



PART I. 

STATE OF CHRISTENDOM. 

CHAPTER I. 

Introductory. 

(a) The Small Extent of Christendom. — Smaller than it once haa 
been. The Mohammedan power checke4*m T th£ West, bu£ encroach- 
ing from the East. Kinship between- Christfans, Mohammedans, 
and Jews, but they hate one another. ^.. ..... i 

(3) The Signs of New Life in CJi^^tSkendavK — Ijiffluence of the cru- 
saders. Inventions. Fall of Constantinople. Revival of learning. 
Printing. . . . . 3 

(c) The Widening of Christendom. — Moors driven out of Spain. Dis- 
covery of America. New way to East Indies. Men's minds prepared 

for great events. 4 

(d) The New Era one of Progress in Civilization. — What civiliza- 
tion is. The old Roman civilization. Its main vice Modern 
civilization. Its strength. The crisis of the struggle between the 
old and the new order of things. Plan of this book. ... 5 

CHAPTER II. 

THE POWERS BELONGING TO THE OLD ORDER OP THINGS, 
AND GOING OUT. 

(a) The Ecclesiastical System. — The Ecclesiastical Empire. Rome 
its capital. Independent of the civil power. The monks. Power 
of the ecclesiastical system, by its influence over the people, by its 
wealth, by the monopoly of learning and political influence, which 

all centred in Rome. This Empire will be broken up in the Era 8 

[b) The Scholastic System. The learned world talked and wrote in 
Latin, and belonged to the clergy. This made learning scholastic, 
shackled science, and religion also, and kept them from the com- 
mon people. Necessity of mental freedom. The Universities. 
Students pass from one to another. The result of this in the days 

of Wiclif. Will be repeated in the new Era. The work of the Era 11 



vi Summary. 

PAGE. 

lc) The Feudal System and the Forces -which were breaking it up. — 
It divided countries into petty lordships. Decay of the feudal 
system. Subjection of feudal lords to the Crown. Increasing 
power of the Crown. The growth of commerce. Trade of the 
Mediterranean. The manufacturing districts. The fisheries. The 
commerce of the Hanse towns. Bruges and Antwerp the central 
marts of commerce. Lines of maritime, inland, and overland trade. 
The towns had mostly got free. Why the towns hated feudalism 
and favored the Crown. The feudal peasantry once were more free 
than afterwards under the feudal system. Where the central power 
was weakest, feudal serfdom lingered longest. The towns and 
commerce favoured freedom of the peasantry . . .16 



CHAPTER III. 

THE MODERN NATIONS WHICH WERE RISING INTO POWER. 

(a) Italy. — Italy not a united nation. Rome, according to Machiavelli, 
the cause of her disunity. Rome a centre of rottenness. Dante 
and Petrarch described her vices. Recent Popes bad men. Alex- 
ander VI. and Caesar Borgia. Their crimes. Effect of Papal 
wickedness. Main divisions of Italy. Papal States. Venice. 
Florence. Milan. Naples. Papal politics the ruin of Italy by 
promoting invasion by France and Spain. 

(b) Germany. — Germany had not yet attained national unity. The 
emperor claimed to be Caesar and King of Rcme. His claim to 
universal empire very shadowy. How elected. The feudal cere- 
mony. There were no imperial domains. Very little imperial 
power. The Emperor Maximilian powerful as head of the Aus- 
trian House of Hapsburg. Charles V. powerful because of his Aus- 
trian and Spanish dominions. The Diets had no power to enforce 
their decrees. The feudal system still prevailed. Subdivision of 
lordships by law of inheritance. Constant petty feuds. Lawless- 
ness of the knights. The towns of Germany. Their leagues for 
mutal defence. Want of a central power to maintain the public 
peace. The condition of the peasantry growing harder and harder 
for want of a central power. History of the German " Bauer." 
Rebellion his only remedy 

(c) Spain. — Spain was becoming the first power in Europe. Power of 
the nobles. Driven into the north by the Moors. Reconquest of 
Spain from the Moors, except Granada which held out. Kingdoms 
of Castile and Arragon united under Ferdinand and Isabella. Spain 
thenceforth tends to become an absolute monarchy. Conquest of 
Granada. Ferdinand's policy to complete Spain on the map. Co- 
lumbus. Foreign policy. Royal marriages. Success of these 
alliances. Domestic policy. Subjugation of the nobles. The 
Inquisition. Banishment of the Jews. Independent policy towards 
Rome. Colonial policy. Christianity introduced into the New 
World, but slavery with it 

{d) France. — How all France had grown into one nation. France 
claimed Milan, and Naples also This union of all France the re- 
sult of the crown being hereditary, primogeniture, and intermarriage 
with the royal family. The towns. Final struggle of the Crown 
with Burgundy. English conquests at an end. The English wars 
had helped to unite thd nation and increase the power of the Crown ; 
but there were seeds of disunion within. The crown had become 



Summary. vil 

absolute. Royal taxes without consent of the people. Royal stand- 
ing army. The noblesse a privileged untaxed caste. The peasantry 
not serfs, but taxed, paying rents, and tithes, and taille. Their 
grievances. The middle-class leave the country for the towns. Se- 
paration of classes the main vice in French polity. Love of foreign 
wars the chief vice in her policy. ...... 41 

if) England. — The English nation had for long been consolidated. The 
nobility not a caste. Importance of the middle classes of citizens and 
yeomen. The Crown and all classes subject to the laws. The 
government a constitutional monarchy, i. e. the king could make no 
new laws and levy no taxes without consent of parliament. The 
ecclesiastics not altogether Englishmen, but held large possessions. 
The Pope also drew revenues from England. The peasantry had got 
free from feudal servitude and were becoming a wage-earning class. 
Freedom did not necessarily make them materially better off. They 
had no share in the government, but there was nothing in the laws 
to prevent their getting it. Henry VII. was a Welshman, and 
landed in Wales. His throne precarious. Other claimants. Lam- 
bert Simnel. Perkin Warbeck. Henry VII. 's foreign policy was 
alliance with Spain. Hence the marriage with Catherine of Arragon. 
Henry VII. 's domestic policy. His position as regards Parliament. 
His minister, Cardinal Morton. Order maintained. Middle class 
favoured. The way paved for the union of England and Scotland. 
The Welsh finally conciliated, and England's colonial empire begun. 
The tomb of Henry VII 48 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE NEED OF REFORM AND DANGER OF REVOLUTION. 

(a) The Necessity for Reform. — Italy and Germany not yet united na- 
tions. The lack of international peace and justice. The serfdom 
of the German peasantry still continued. The ecclesiastical and 
scholastic systems needed reform. The alternatives were reform or 
revolution. ........... 

{&) The Train laid for Revolution. — Chiefly among the German peas- 
antry. Their ecclesiastical as well as feudal grievances. Contem- 
porary testimony. Successful rebellion of the Swiss in 1315, and the 
peasants of the Graubund 1441 — 71. Unsuccessful rebellion of the 
Lollards and Hussite wars 1415 — 1436. Threats of rebellion in Fran- 
conia in 1476. The Bundschuh. Rebellion in Kempten 1492. In 
Elsa'ss 1493. Both again in 1501-2. In the Black Forest 1512-13, 
under Joss Fritz. In 1514 in Wiirtemberg and the Austrian Alps. 
The Swabian league of nobles against the peasants. Far and wide 
the train was laid for future revolution. The train laid not where 
serfdom was at its worst, but where freedom was nearest in sight. 



57 



viii Summary. 

PART n. 
THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION. 

CHAPTER I. 

REVIVAL OF LEARNING AND REFORM AT FLORENCE. 



PAGE 



(a) The Revivers of Learning at Florence. — The Republic of Flor- 
ence. Power in the hands of the Medici. Cosmo de' Medici 1389 
-1464. Lorenzo de' Medici 1448-1492. Florence the Modern Athens. 
Michael Angelo. The Platonic Academy, Ficino, Politian, and 
Pico della Mirandola. Semi-pagan tendencies of the revival of 
learning. ........... 68 

(b) The great Florentine Reformer, Girolamo Savonarola, 1452-1498. 
— He becomes a religious reformer. Made Prior of St. Mark at 
Florence. Stirs up in the people the spirit of reform and freedom. 
Death of Lorenzo and Innocent VIII. The French Invasion of 
Italy. The Medici expelled. The republic restored. Savonarola's 
reforms. He becomes fanatical. Is martyred by order of Pope 
Alexander VI. ... 71 

(c) Savonarola' s Influence on the Revivers of Learning. — His in- 
fluence over Pico, Politian, and Ficino 74 

(d) Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527. — Secretary to the Republic at 
Florence, and then serves the Medici. Writes ' The Prince/ in 
which he codifies the vicious maxims of Italian policy since called 
'Machiavellian.' 75 



CHAPTER II. 

THE OXFORD REFORMERS. 

(a) The Spirit of Revival of Learning and Reform is carried front 
Italy to Oxford. — Distinction and connection between the revival 
of learning and Religious reform. Both against the Scholastic 
system. The reform movement crushed at Florence. Revivers of 
learning at Oxford. Grocyn and Linacre go to Italy, and return to 
Oxford. John Colet does the same. Colet unites the spirit of the 
new learning and religious reform. ...... 76 

{b) Colet, More and Erasmus join in fellow-work. — Lectures on St. 
Paul's Epistles at Oxford. Attacks the schoolmen. He urges 
also the need of ecclesiastical reform. Colet attracts disciples and 
fellow workers. Thomas More. Erasmus. Early life of Erasmus. 
He comes to Oxford. Makes friends with Colet and Thomas More. 
Comes under Colet's influence 78 

(c) The Oxford students are scattered till the Accession of Henry 
VIII. — Exactions of Empson and Dudley. More offends Henry 
VII. The circle of Oxford students formed again in London. . 82 

(d) On the accession of Henry VIII they co7nmence their fellow- 
work. Hopes on the accession of Henry VIII. The Oxford stu- 
dents in Court favour. Erasmus Greek professor at Cambridge. 84 

\p) Erasmus writes his ' Praise of Folly .' — Satire on the scholastic 
theologians, monks, and popes 85 



Summary. 



{/) Colet founds St. Paul's School. -It is a school of the new learning 
and excites the malice of men of the old school. IS sermon 

r>* r^ e r ias J- cal ?f°^- Esca P es from a char S« ofheray 

^ In- Cont ™<™tal Wars of Henry VIII f«i-i«2 — Th* "Woi ' 

fiHSn a8ainSt JT^t H ««y^n-'s first 5 ca m 5 p I a l gn Th ^ e ° y y 

make kings absolute. The example of France. Narrow escaoe of 
ai.an^o'Sot 5 agai " St . the "»• Srasmns^S 
(/*, The kind of Reform aimed at by the Oxford Reformers -Fras 
VIH^e^r * ST C ^-V drSrTlmo Henry 
« TTvLfo • ™ ' Christian Prince ' of Erasmus. More's 

ciYSon t7 T eVed th ru UgWy into the s P iri t of modern 
civilization. The character of their religious reform The New 

lTS?£-d Rel ra r US >, The ^ nd ,° f ^iastical reform urged by 

^^m^^sst 1 at . a br r d a . nd toler ™ cLrch " 



IX 

PAGE 



93 



CHAPTER III. 

THE WITTENBERG REFORMERS. 



( } 5S L A U ! he i ie '°™ es > a Reformer. -Luther born 1483. Sent to 
school and to the University of Erfurt. Becomes a monk AdopS 
the theology of St. Augustine, and in this differed from the Oxford 
Reformers. He removes to Wittenberg. Visits Rome Reads the 
SeohiT EraSmUSand finds out ^ Sfer e enc?ln d the h ir 

(b) The Sale of Indulgences. -Leo X.''s scheme to get money bv'in 9? 
diligences. . Offers princes a share in the spoil. EralmuT writes" 

(d) The Election of Charles V. to the Empire (1 tia) -Death of M a v? IQI 
fSSfe ^t^nleSra^o^S-^" ^ „ 



106 

ius. The 



X 



Summary. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE CRISIS.— REFORM OR REVOLUTION.— REFORM REFUSED 
BY THE RULING POWERS. 



(a\ Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen.— The Robin Hoods 

W of Germany side with Luther. Ulrich von Hutten. His satire 

upon Rome. His German popular rhymes against Rome. De- 



PAGB 



ft 



mands freedom. Small chances of Reform. . • • • . "3 
The Diet of Worms meets 28th January, 1521-77 Agenda at me 
Diet of Worms : to stop private war, to settle deputes, to provide 
cen^l power in the Emperor's absence, and to take notice o the 



ii5 



(c) 2S57SSS5 2 KSS rx 52 x). Luther's Antithesis of Christ 
() fnlAnttchris" Luther sets off for Worms. His journey Popular 

excitement Luther's heroic firmness. He enters Worms . 119 

(d) SheTbeforerte Diet. -Luther's first appearance before the Die£ 
*" He asks for time to consider his answer. They give him till the 

next day Excitement in Worms. Luther's second appearance 
before the Diet. His speech. Repeats his speech in Latin. Re- 
fuses to recant 1 he Emperor decides against Luther. 1 hreats of 
Revoluton The Electors urge delay. Luther leaves Worms. 
What Luther did at Worms for Germany and for Christendom. 127 

(e) Edict Against Luther. -Fears of the papal party. Rumours of 
( } Luther Capture. The Elector of Saxony leaves Worms. _ Treaty 

between affiles V. and the Pope. The Edict issued against Lu- 
ther Letter from Valdez, the Emperor s secretary. . • • 129 
\f\ Political 'Reasons for the 'Decision at H^rww.-Rivalship between 
{) Scan and France. Intrigues of princes. France the common 
enemy o?the Pope, Spain, and England. Reform refused by the 
ruling powers from political motives • i 

CHAPTER V. 

REVOLUTION. 

id\ The Prophets of Revolution.— Vortex feeling against the Edict. 

' LmherirT the Wartburg. In his absence wilder spirits take the lead 

The prophets of Zwicku. Luther comes back t . Wrttenberg .and 

confronts the prophets. His common sense prevails The prophets 

driven from Wittenberg. Miinzer becomes the prophet of the peas- 



ib\ ThI'End 'of Sickingen and Hutten.-The Council of Regency 

{) under the Elector of Saxony strives to avert the storm, but meete 

wkh opposition Franz von Sickingen takes to the sword, but is 

Se\teTand killed. Hutten' s death. The peasantry get nothing 

fc) ThTpTas^ W-Carlstadt and Miinzer stir up rebel* n. In- 
X) smrection of the peasantry in Swabia. Their twelve articles. Not 
Sv to be granted by either Pope, nobles, rr Luther Swabian 
peaLts crShed in April, x 525 . Insurrection on the Neckar 
April i«S. The peasants' revenge for Swabian slaughters, 1 he 
reSktion of the nobles, May, 1525. Insurrection m Franconia. 
Revolution in the towns of Franconia. Diary of a citizen of Roth- 



Summary. 



XI 



enburg. Insurrection in Elsass and Lorraine put down May im^" 

Munze" T fJJ h F in F T a " U H * mad proclamation. Death of 
Munzer 1 he attitude of Luther during the Peasants' War Who 

id) TfiJ&SlSf™ ? Deat ?n° f Ihe El£Ct0r ° f Saxony, M a r y , ^° ^ 
Sipone R ba " le ° f P^?- RuP^re between Chanes V and 



PART III. 

RESULTS OF THE PROTESTANT 
REVOLUTION. 

CHAPTER I. 

REVOLTS FROM ROME, 
(i.) IN SWITZERLAND AND GERMANY. 

^ 1; the Romanic nations remained under Rome. In 



„ .' ,"' "'v. ivumdiiiu nations remained under Rome Tn 

andcivtlTa^ 6 ^ 5 ^^ ^ ""* ; in SOme ^de^ction 

(3) The Revolt in Switzerland-Switzerland divided into cantons ^ 

Civil power vested in the people. Ulrich Zwingle the Swis re 

poors' Se B t irne at (1 ZUr V Ch - ^^ aSSUm&S t0 ^ ^ckKtiS 
powers. Berne does the same soon after. Civil war Peace of 

M r aPP | L C^cter of Zwingle. Luther quarrels wkh Zwingle 16 

(c) The Revolt in Germany. -The freedom of the German peafantrv 

postponed for ten generations. The Diet of Spires, 1526 left each 

state t0 t k us own course about Luther. Hence aVose Protestant 

^ a n^r t i 1 | atl0n n a l churchesfree from Rome, while others re- 
mained Catholic The second Diet of Spires, 1529, reversed the 
decision, notwithstanding the protest of the Protestant vLS 
Ovd war averted by the Turks' attack on Vienna. The Turks 

— of n A U e S W C Th rl " A" ^^ ^ u P° n German heretics. Se 
ot Augsburg. Ihe 'Augsburg Confession.' Protestant princes 
form the league of Schmalkald for mutual defence. Civfl wa? p"S- 
poned during Luther's life, but it begins soon after his death 

V&LtoFc^Z\% G % m * n l,- ReV ° lt0f , the p ™testant princes 
JJeteat of Charles V.; his abdication and death The P«rP nf 
Augsburg(i 5 55) and its rule of mock toleration. Evils b roug h t 
upon Germany by Charles V.'s policy. . . . urougnt 



xii Summary. 

CHAPTER II. 

REVOLT OF ENGLAND FROM ROME. 

PAGE. 

(a) Its Political Character—In England the revolt from Rome was 

national and came at first from political causes 171 

{b) Reasons for Henry VIII.' s Loyalty to Rome—Henry VIII. de- 
fends the divine authority of the Pope, and writes a book against 
Luther in 1 52 1. He tells Sir Thomas More of a secret reason for 
it. Henry VIII. 's marriage with Catherine of Arragon. Secret 
doubts about its validity. Its unsatisfactory beginning. Its validity 
rested on the divine authority of the Pope. Henry VIII. 's anxiety 
about it and the succession. His anxiety to keep on good terms 
with the Pope and Charles V. Execution of the Duke of Bucking- 
ham for having his eye upon the succession to the throne. . 172 

(c) Sir Thomas More defends Henry VIII. against Luther. — Effect 
of the knowledge of Henry VIII. 's secret reasons on Sir Thomas 
More's mind. Reaction in the minds of Erasmus and More against 
Luther J 7 6 

(d) Reasons for Henry VIII.' s Change of Policy.— Wolsey the great 
war minister of Henry VIII. More opposed to the wars with 
France. Charles V.'s treachery, and the Pope's. Henry VIIl.'s 
foreign policy all at sea again. 178 

(e) The Crisis. — Henry VIII. determines tipon the Divorce from 
Catherifie of Arragon.— Results of breach with Spain. Political 
reasons for the divorce from Catherine. Wolsey tries to get the 
Pope to grant a divorce, but fails. Henry VIII. takes the matter 
into his own hands , ... 180 

) Fall of Wolsey (1529-1530.) 181 

) The Parliament of 1529-1536. Revolt of England from Rome.— 
Sir Thomas More lord chancellor. Parliament of 1529 a crisis in 
English history, like the Diet of Worms in German history. Com- 
plaints against the clergy and ecclesiastical abuses. Wolsey's at- 
tempts at ecclesiastical reform under papal authority. The king 
and parliament now take up the matter. Petition of the Commons 
against ecclesiastical grievances. Practical reforms. The divorce 
question laid before the universities by Cranmer. Farther reforms. 
The king declared supreme head of the (. hurch of England instead 
of the Pope. 1 he king marries Annie Boleyn. The revolt of Eng- 
land from Rome is now completed. ...... 182 

(h) Heresy still punished in England. — There had been no change of 
religious, creed. Heretics still persecuted, and among them Tindal, 
the translator of the New Testament. Sir Thomas More's zeal 
against heresy 185 

(1) Execution of Sir Thomas More. — More himself has to suffer for 
conscience' sake. More and Fisher sent to the Tower. Execution of 
Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher 186 

(k) Death of Erasmus in 1536.— Review of the results produced by the 

work of the Oxford Reformers. ...... 190 

(/) Dissolution of the Monasteries and Refor?n of the Universities. — 
The work set a-going by the Oxford Reformers goes on. Cromwell 
now ecclesiastical minister of Henry VIII., inquires into the state 
of the monasteries. Dissolution of the monasteries and destruction 
of shrines. Reform of the Universities. Parliament of 1529-36 
dissolved. Tindal's translation of the Bible sanctioned. Martyrdom 
of Tindal 19* 

(m) Later Years of Henry VIII. — Execution of Anne Boleyn. Henry 
VIII. marries Jane Seymour. A Catholic rebellion breaks out in 
the North, fomented by the Pope and Reginald Pole, but is quelled. 



8 



Summary. xiii 

Birth of Edward VI. and death of the queen. Henry VIII. marries 
Anne of Cleves, but does not like her. Cromwell sacrificed to get 
rid of her. Reconciliation with Charles V. Henry VIII. 's last two 
marriages. Alliance with Spain, and wars with France. Want of 
money. Death of Henry VIII. in 1547. Reform goes on during 
the reign of Edward VI. Catholic reaction under Queen Mary. 
England becomes finally Protestant under Queen Elizabeth. . 193 
(«) Influence of Henry VIII.' s Reign on the English Constitution.— 
How far the constitution was maintained. The revolt from Rome 
accomplished by constitutional means. The power of Parliament 
maintained. . It preserved its control over taxation, and over the 
making of new laws. On the whole, the Parliaments of Henry VIII. 
deserve well of Englishmen. Unjust state trials the chief blot on 
the reign of Henry VIII. England fared much better than France 
and Spain . . # Ig6 

CHAPTER III. 

REVOLT OF DENMARK AND SWEDEN AND (LATER) OF 
THE NETHERLANDS. 

(a) Denmark and Sweden.— Both Denmark and Sweden throw off the 
yoke of Christian II. and then separate. The Swedes elect Gus- 
tavus Vasa king. Sweden, under him, becomes a Protestant nation. 
Denmark also, under her new king, becomes Protestant. . . 100 

(<5) The Revolt 0/ the Netherlands.— Policy of Philip II. to subject the 
Netherlanders to Spain and to Rome. They revolt, and the * United 
Provinces ' become a Protestant nation 20# 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE GENEVAN REFORMERS. 

{a) Rise of a New School 0/ Reform.— A Protestant movement which 
was not national, but which influenced the Protestants of France 
England, Scotland, and America more than Luther did. . . ' 20*- 

(b) John Calvin.— His 'Institutes ' gave logical form to the ' Calvinistic 
doctrines. Calvin settles at Geneva. Becomes a kind of dictator 
of the Genevan state. His severe discipline and intolerance. He 
founds schools 202 

(c) Influence of the Genevan School on Western Protestantism. — The 
French Huguenots, the Scotch Covenanters, the English Puritans, 
the Pilgrhn Fathers of New England, all of the Genevan school. 
Their historical importance, and influence on national character. 204 

CHAPTER V. 

REFORM WITHIN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

{a) The Italian Reformers.— Efforts at Reform within the Church. 
Improvement in the character of Popes. The Mediating Reformers 
of Italy. Valdez, Pole, Contarini. Paul III. makes some of them 
Cardinals. Chances of a reconciliation with Protestants under 
Paul III. Contarini and Melanchthon try to make peace at the 
Diet of Ratisbon, but the Pope draws back, and Luther also. 
Everything left over till the Council of Trent j>og 



xiv Summary. 



Sb) The new Order of the Society of Jesus.— Ignatius Loyola, a Span- 
ish knight. He is wounded in 152 1. Resolves to become a general 
of an army of saints instead of soldieis. His austerities. Resolves 
to found the ' Order of Jesus.' To prepare himself, studies at the 
University of Paris. At Paris meets Francis Xavier. Xavier 
becomes a disciple, and the great Jesuit missionary to the Indies, 
China and Japan. Character of the Jesuits. Their success and 
influence. Causes of their ultimate unpopularity. . . . 

(c) The Council of Trent.— Council of Trent meets in 1545. _ The 
Jesuits prevail over the mediating Reformers. The Inquisition 
introduced into Rome by Caraffa, afterwards Pope Paul IV. The 
Council adjourned till 1525, under Paul IV. The Roman Catholic 
Church reformed in morals, but made more rigid than ever in creed. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE FUTURE OF SPAIN AND FRANCE. 

(a) The Future of Spain.— Growth of absolute mo irchy in Spain. 
Philip II. in close league with the Papacy. S" ks to establish 
Spanish and Papal supremacy together. Fatal results of his policy. 214 

(b) The Future of France.— Everything sacrificed to gratify the am- 
bition of the absolute monarchy under Francis I. The curse which 
the absolute monarchy was to France. Struggle with the Hugue- 
nots in France. Massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572. Toleration 
for a time under the Edict of Nantes. Its revocation in 1685, and 
the banishment of the Huguenots, who came to England. . 216 



CHAPTER VII. 

GENERAL RESULTS OF THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 

(a) On the Growth of National Life.— Influence of the Protestant 
Revolution on national life— where it succeeded — where it failed — 
where it partly failed and partly succeeded _ 218 

(b) On the Relations of Nations to each other. — Small improvement in 
the dealings between Nations. The Oxford Reformers not listened 
to in this. Henry VIII. the last English king to dream of recover- 
ing France. Hugo Grotius afterwards urges International reform. 219 

(c) Influence on the Growth of National Languages and Literature. 
— Luther's Bible and Hymns fix the character of the German lan- 
guage. Influence of Ca'vin's writings on the French language. 
Influence of Tindal's New Testament on the English version of the 
Bible, and so upon the English language 220 

(d) Effects in Stimulating National Education. — Schools founded by 
Savonarola, Colet, Luther, Calvin, Knox, the Pilgrim Fathers, and 
the Jesuits : , .• 222 

( e) Influence on Domestic Life — Political importance of domestic life. 
Danger to it from the existence in a country of large celibate classes. 
Dissolution of monasteries and permission to the clergy to marry, a 
step gained for modern civilization. • 223 

\f) Influence on Popular Religion.— The Protestant movement popu- 
larized religion, and strengthened individual conviction. . . 223 



Summary. X v 



PAGE. 

(f) Want of Progress in Toleration.— Change from Catholic to Pro- 
testant creeds was change from one rigid scholastic creed to others, 
equally rigid. Small connection between claiming freedom of 
thought and conceding it to others. Persecution did not make the 
persecuted tolerant. Yet toleration was after all one of the ulti- 
mate results of the Protestant revolution. 225 

(A) The Causes -why the Success of the Era was so partial. — Progress 
must be gradual. Limited by the range of knowledge. Limited 
view of the universe. The earth still thought to be in the centre. 
The crystalline spheres. Heaven beyond. The motion of the 
spheres regarded with awe, and in popular superstition referred to 
angels. Astrology laughed at by some but believed in by others. 
Belief in visions and inspirations, and in prodigies. Universal be- 
lief in witchcraft. Witches as well as heretics burned. Barbar- 
ism of ciiminal law everywhere. The age not prepared for tolera- 
tion. '..,... 227 

(0 Beginning of Progress in Scientific Inquiry.— -The range of geo- 
graphical and astronomical knowledge widened. Nicolas Coperni- 
cus argues that the sun is in the centre of the universe. His great 
work not published till he was on his death-bed. He was followed 
by Tycho Brahe, Kepler and Galileo before the century was closed. 231 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ECONOMIC RESULTS OF THE ERA. 

iesults of the Era on what remained of the feudal system. In Ger- 
many, personal services continued. In France, feudal rents and 
payments chiefly in kind continued till 1798. In England, feudal 
rents were chiefly in fixed money payments. Effect of the dis- 
covery of the silver mines in the "New World. The fall in the value 
of money caused a great rise in prices. German peasants' services 
not lessened by it ; nor the French peasants' rents in produce, but 
it reduced the burden of the English peasants' rents in money to 
one-sixth or one-eighth of the value of the land. This would have 
made them peasant proprietors had they held on to their land, but 
their tendency was to leave their land and become labourers for 
wages. Change from peasant proprietorship of land and of looms 
to labour for wages chiefly the result of the growth of commerce 
and capital and the use of machinery. These changes had begun 
in the sixteenth century, and they completed the silent downfall of 
the feudal system in England 233 



CONCLUSION. 

The Protestant Revolution was the beginning of a great revolutionary 
wave which broke in the French revolution of 1798. The move- 
ment was inevitable, and might have been peacefully met and aided 
by timely reforms ; but the refusal of reform at the time of the 
crisis involved ten generations in the tnrmoils of revolution. . 23J 



MAPS. 

At the beginning. 

1. Christendom, &c. 

2. The Commerce of Christendom. 

At the end. 

3. Serfdom, and Rebellions against it s 

BEFORE 1 51 5. 

4. The Peasants' War, 1525. 



ERA 

OF THE 

PROTESTANT REVOLUTION. 



PART I. 

STATE OF CHRISTENDOM. 
CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

[a) The Small Extent of Christendom. 

In the map at the beginning of this volume the light 
portion marks the Old World as it was known at the 
commencement of the era of which we have to speak. 
A glance will show how small a portion of the known 
world belonged to Christendom — that marked red and 
striked red. And only the red part belonged m , 

, _.„..... . , Thesmallness 

to Western or Roman Christendom, with ofChnsten- 
which we have mostly to do. The part striped om ' 
red had long ago severed itself from the Western and 
belonged to the Eastern Church, which by the Roman 
was regarded as heretical and alien. Thus the Christen- 
dom of which Rome was the capital embraced only 
the western half of the little peninsula of Europe. And 
not even all that. For there was a little bit of Spain 
(marked blue) which did not belong to Christendom. 
B 



2 State of Christendo?n. pt. i. 

We may note next how much smaller Christendom 
was than it had once been. It had once covered not only 
„ „ , the parts coloured red and striped red, but 

smaller than x A 

it once had also those coloured dark blue, i. e. all Europe, 

Asia Minor, and the African shores of the 

Mediterranean Sea. But the dark blue portions had been 

conquered from Christendom by her great rival Moham- 

medan power, whose religion, though only 

medan power, half as old as Christianity, was thought to 

number many times as many adherents as 

there were Christians, and covered a much larger area 

than Christendom — all the countries marked blue. 

More than 700 years — twenty generations — ago the 
Mohammedan Moors, after conquering the African shores 
_ , , . of the Mediterranean, had pushed on into 

Checked in • r i 

the West. Spain and threatened Christendom from the 

West. Defeated and checked at the great battle of Tours 
in 732, after a struggle of 700 years they still held a foot- 
hold in Spain — the rich southern province of Granada. 
But whilst checked in the West, Mohammedan arms 
had recently been encroaching more and more upon 
„ Christendom from the East. Turkey and 

But en- J 

croaching from Hungary had fallen into their hands, and in 
1453, i. e. in the lifetime of the fathers of the 
men of the new era, Constantinople had been taken by 
the Turks. The old capital of the Eastern Roman 
Empire now became the capital of the great Ottoman 
Empire. We see then how near to Rome Turkish con- 
quests had come. Only the Adriatic separated the Otto- 
man Empire from Italy. Once the Turks had even got a 
footing in the heel of Italy. It really seemed not unlikely 
that the capital of Christendom might itself some day 
fall into their hands. 



CH. i. Introductory. 3 

No wonder the Turks were the terror of the Chris- 
tians. And yet they had one thing in common, and it is 
well that we should remember it. They were worshippers 
of the same God. Both Christians and Mo- _. ,. 

Kinship 

hammedans professed to trace back their between Chris- 
faith to Abraham. Though Christendom was medans, and 
small and dwindling, the area of the religion J ews- 
inherited from Abraham was large and in- „ 

° But they hate 

creasing. But this was no consolation to men one another. 
to whom their fellow Christians of the East- 
ern Church were heretics, the ' unbelieving Jews ' the ob- 
jects of scorn, and the ' infidel ' Turks of terror. 

(b) The Signs of New Life in Christendom. 

Christendom had never felt herself so small or so be- 
set with enemies. And yet there were signs of a new 
life springing up. The new era was to be one of hope 
and progress. 

The Crusades of the Christian nations, intended to 
dislodge the ' Infidel ' out of Jerusalem, though they had 
failed in that object, had awakened Europe to 

Influence of 

new life. East and West were brought nearer the Crusades, 
together. Knights and soldiers and pilgrims 
brought home from new lands new thoughts and wider 
notions. Commerce with the East was extended. Mari- 
time enterprise was stimulated. There was 

, . _, . , Inventions. 

improvement in ships. The manner s com- 
pass was discovered, and under its guidance longer voya- 
ges could safely be made. The invention of „ „ , _, 

i 1 % ! ,. Fall of Con- 

gunpowder had changed the character of stantinople. 

war and enlarged the scale on which it was waged. The 
recent conquests of the Turks were indirectly the cause 
of new life to Christendom. The fail of Con- 

i 1 , . . Revival of 

stantinople resulted in a great revival of learning. 



4 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

learning in Europe. Driven from the East, learned 
Greeks and Jews came to settle in Italy. Greek and 
Hebrew were again studied in Europe. The literature, 
the history, the poetry, the philosophy and arts of old 
Greece and Rome were revived. And the result was 
that a succession of poets, painters, sculptors, and histo- 
rians sprang up in Christendom such as had not been 
_ . . known for centuries. Above all the inven- 

Pnnting. . ... 

tion of printing had come just in time to 
spread whatever new ideas were afloat with a rapidity 
never known before. 

(c) The Widening of Christendom. 
So it is easy to see there were abundant signs of new 
life in Christendom, however small, and hemmed in, and 
threatened she might be. A new era was coming on, 
and now observe how Christendom was widened, and 
fresh room found for the civilization of the new era to 
work in. 

(i) In 149 1 the Moors were at last and for ever driven 
out of Spain by the conquest of Granada by 

Moors driven J , J 

out of Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella, and men felt that a 
turn had come in the tide of victory in favour 
of Christians. 

(2) In 1492 came the discovery of the New World by 
Columbus, followed up by the Spanish conquests of 

f Mexico and Peru, the Portuguese settle- 
America, ments in Brazil, and the gaining of a foot- 
hold in the New World by Sebastian Cabot for England 
— the embryo of those great colonies, the New England, 
or extension of England across the Atlantic, in which 
half the English people now dwell. 

(3) In 1497 Vasco de Gama sailed for the first time 
round the Cape of Good Hope, and a new way was 



ch. I. Introductory. 5 

opened to Asia and the East Indies, and 

out of this in the far future came England s East Indies. 

Indian Empire and Australian colonies. 

Looking again at the map, and adding to the Old 
World the countries coloured in shadow which were 
brought to light mostly during the childhood of the men 
of the new era, we cannot wonder that they spoke of 
them as belonging to a ' new world.* And bearing in 
mind that having reached the West Indies, knowing of 
no Pacific Ocean between, they thought they had 
reached the East Indies from the west, and so had been, 
as it were, round the world, we may realize how grand 
the new discoveries must have seemed to them. Men of 
that day did not of course realize what we know now, 
how wide a field these new discoveries would open for 
Christian civilization to extend itself into. But still they 
gave an immediate feeling of relief to pent-up Christen- 
dom, a spur to commerce and maritime en- _, , . , 

_. . Mens minds 

terpnse, new light to science, new sources prepared for 
of wealth, and new direction to the energies great events ' 
of nations, and more or less to all men a sense that they 
were living in an age of progress and change which pre- 
pared them to look into the future with hope, and to ex* 
pect great events to happen in their time. 

(d) The New Era one of Progress in Civilization. 
In what Modern Civilization Consists. 

The work of the new era was to gain for Christendom 
a fresh step in the onward course of civilization. 

And when we speak of advance in civilization, what 
do we mean ? Not simply advance in popu- 
lation, wealth, luxury, but far more, that ZlV™ 1 ™' 
which is hid in the derivation of the word, 
viz,, advance in the art of living together in civil society. 



State of Christendom. 



PT. I. 



And in order clearly to understand the work that was 
to be done in this era of progress, we must understand 
the difference between ( i ) the old form of civilization 
which was to be left behind and (2) the new form of 
civilization towards which fresh steps were to be gained. 

(1) The old Roman civilization had come about by 
the conquest Of the uncivilized tribes of Western Europe 
^, , , t, by the Romans, by their making the known 

The old Ro- J jo 

man civiliza- world into one great empire, bringing all its 
ends together by making roads, encoura- 
ging commerce, making the Latin language understood 
by the educated all 
over it, and Rome the 
centre of it all. The 
Roman Empire was in 
fact a network of Ro- 
man towns, with all the 
threads of it drawn to- 
wards Rome. These 
towns were camps, 
from which the con- 
querors ruled the dis- 
tricts round. Little 
account was taken of 
the country people. 

They were looked upon as hopelessly rustic and barba- 
rian. Under this system all the conquered countries 
were made provinces of the Roman Empire, not for their 
own but for the conquerors' good. The 
masses of the people were governed by Ro- 
man governors for the benefit, not of themselves, but of 
a small number of Roman citizens. This vice — this blot 
■ — in the Roman polity was no doubt the cause of its de- 
cay. 




Its main vice. 



ch. i. Introductory. 7 

(2) The aim of modern civilization is obviously far 
higher than this. It has not yet reached its 

° , l. 1 1 ■ 1 1 Modern 

goal, but we see clearly that it has been civilization. 
aiming, not at one vast universal empire, 
but at the formation of several compact and separate 
nations, living peaceably side by side, respecting one 
another's rights and freedom ; and, looking within each 
nation, at making all classes of the people, town and 
country, rich and poor, alike citizens for whose common 
weal the nation is to be governed, and who 

& Its strength. 

ultimately shall govern themselves. In this 

aim of modern civilization to secure the common weal of 

the people lies its power and strength. 

Now the passage from the old decaying form of civili- 
zation to the new, better, and stronger one, involved a 

change ; and this change must needs take _ . . , 

1 11 1 , 1 r™ it 1 The cr,sls oi 

place slowly and by degrees. The old order the struggle 

of things had gradually for long been going oiTlnTthe 6 

out ; the new order of things had gradually "h^ der of 

for long been coming in. But in this era 

was to be the crisis of the change — the final decisive 

struggle between the two forces ; and in this lies its 

importance and its interest. 

Before we begin the story of this struggle, we must 

briefly consider what it was in the state of . 

-,, . , •,•-,-, i 1 -, • Plan of this 

Christendom which brought it on ; and this book, 
will be done best by our examining — 

( i ) The powers which belonged to the old order of 
things, and now dying out. 

(2) The state of the modern nations which were 
growing up in their place. 

In doing so, we shall try to lay most stress on the 
condition of the masses of the people ; and we shall not 
fail to see clearly some of the main points in which, if 



8 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

modern civilization was to go on, there was a necessity for 
reform, and the danger there was that, if the needful re- 
forms were much longer withheld, there would be revo- 
lution. 

Then in Part II. will come the story of the struggle ; 
and in Part III. its results on the different nations. We 
shall end with trying to take stock of the amount of pro- 
gress gained during the era, and to look forward at the 
prospects of the future that arise out of it. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE POWERS BELONGING TO THE OLD ORDER OF 
THINGS, AND GOING OUT. 

(a) The Ecclesiastical System. 

Western Christendom was united under one Eccle- 
siastical system — the Roman, or, as it called itself, the 
■ Holy Catholic' Church. 

It was, in fact, a great Ecclesiastical Empire, of which 
Rome was the capital, and the Pope of Rome the head. 
„ „ , In the last generation there had been a 

The Eccle- , . ° , ., , . -. 

siastical Em- schism — z. e. for a while there were two rival 
Rome a Sie Popes excommunicating each other — but 

capital. a f ter much trouble and scandal the schism 

had been ended, and now all was one again. 

Europe was mapped out into ecclesiastical provinces, 
at the head of each of which was an archbishop. Each 
province was divided into dioceses, with bishops at their 
head, and each diocese into parishes, each with its parish 
priest. Thus there was an ecclesiastical network all over 
Europe, all the threads of which were drawn towards 



CH. II. The Ecclesiastical System. o 

Rome, and held in the hands of the Pope and his cardi^ 
nals. 

This ecclesiastical empire kept itself as free as possi- 
ble from the civil power in each nation. It considered 
itself above kings and princes. It was more nd 

ancient than any of their thrones and king- of the civil 
doms. Kings were not secure on their thrones pmv 
till they had the sanction of the Church. On the othef 
hand the clergy claimed to be free from prosecution 
under the criminal laws of the lands they lived in. They 
struggled to keep their own ecclesiastical laws and their 
own ecclesiastical courts, receiving authority direct from 
Rome, and with final appeal, not to the Crown, but to 
the Pope. 

In addition to the parochial clergy, there were orders 
of monks. The two chief of them were the rival orders 
of the Dominican and Augustinian monks ; The monks 
and in most towns there were one, two, or 
half-a-dozen monasteries and cloisters. So numerous 
were the monks that they swarmed everywhere, and had 
become, by the favour of the Popes, more important and 
powerful in many ways than the parochial clergy. 

It is essential to mark what a power this ecclesiastical 
empire wielded over the nations. The _ 

r . Power of the 

ecclesiastics held in their hands the keys, ecclesiastical 
as it were, not only of heaven but of earth. s y stem ' 

They alone baptized; they alone married people 
(though unmarried themselves) ; they alone could grant 
a divorce. They had the charge of men on . 

J ° by influence 

their death-beds ; they alone buried, and over the 
could refuse Christian burial in the church- 
yards. They alone had the disposition of the goods of 
deceased persons. When a man made a will, it had to 
be proved in their ecclesiastical courts. If men disputed 



io State of Christendom. pt. i. 

their claims, doubted their teaching, or rebelled from 
their doctrines, they virtually condemned them to the 
stake, by handing them over to the civil power, which 
acted in submission to their dictates. You will see at 
once how great a power all these things must have given 
them over the minds, the fears, the happiness, and the 
lives of the people. 

The ordinary revenues of the clergy were large. They 
, . , , had a right to ' tithes ; ' i. e. to a tenth part 

by its wealth ; ° ' r 

of the produce of the whole land of Chris- 
tendom. This had belonged to them for hundreds of 
years. In addition to this they claimed fees for every- 
thing they did. 

The monks, according to the rules of their founders, 
ought to have got their living by begging alms in return 
for their preachings and their prayers for the living and 
the dead. But their vow of poverty had not kept them 
poor. People thought that by giving property to them 
they could save their souls ; so rich men, sometimes in 
their lifetime but oftener on their deathbeds, left them 
large sums of money and estates in land. In spite of 
laws passed by the civil powers to prevent it, it was said 
that they had got about a third of the land of Europe 
into their possession. Thus the revenue and riches of the 
Church was far larger than that of the kings and princes 
of Europe. 

These were not the sole secrets of their power. From 
the fact that the clergy were almost the only educated 
people in Europe, they became the lawyers 
poly of learn- and diplomatists, envoys, ambassadors, min- 
isters, chancellors, and even prime minis- 
ters of princes. They were mixed up with the politics 
of Europe, and the reins of the State in most countries 
were in the hands of ecclesiastics. They received pro- 



CH. II. 



The Ecclesiastical System. 



XI 



and political 
influence, 



motion to bishoprics most often in return for 
such political services. 

We cannot fail to see how vast the political power of 
such an ecclesiastical empire as this must have been. 
The Pope, through his army of ecclesiastics all over 
Christendom, had the strings in his hand by which to 
influence the politics of Europe. And one . 

r r which ill cen- 

of the great complaints of the best men of tred in Rome, 
the day was that this political influence was 
used by Rome for her own ends instead of the good of 
Europe, and that the immense ecclesiastical revenues 
tended to flow out of the provinces into the coffers of the 
Popes and cardinals of Rome. 

All this of course tended 
to hinder the : . 

This Empire 

growth and m- will be 

, , e broken up. 

dependence of 
the separate nations, and to 
prevent all classes within 
them from becoming united 
into a compact nation. 

It will be one great work 
of the era, to break up this 
ecclesiastical empire — to free 
several nations (those mark- 
ed white on the map) from its yoke. So that Rome will 
cease to be the capital of Christendom. 

{&) The Scholastic System. 

There was another power in Europe which was 
Roman and not national ; which tended to keep classes 
of people apart, and so stood in the way of the growth of 
national life in the separate nations. 

The learned world was a world of its own, severed 




12 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

from the masses of the people by its scholastic system. 
The learned AH the learned men in Europe talked and 
world talked wr ote letters and books in Latin — the lan- 

and wrote 

Latin, guage of Rome. Some of them did not 

even know the common language of the countries they 
lived in. And as Latin was the language of learning, 
so Rome was the capital of the learned world. Thus 
the learned world was closely connected with the eccle* 
siastical system. Learned people were looked upon 
as belonging to the clergy; and the Pope had long 
and belonged claimed them as subjects of his ecclesiasti- 
to the clergy. ca i empire. So for centuries in England a 
man convicted of a crime, by pleading that he could 
read and write, could claim benefit of clergy, i. e. to be 
tried in an ecclesiastical court, and this by long abuse 
came to mean exemption from the punishments of the 
criminal law of the land. 

This tended to give to knowledge and learning itself a 

clerical or scholastic character. Knowledge was tied 

down by scholastic rules which had grown up 

This made . . , , ... - . 

learning m times when the ecclesiastics were the only 

'scholastic, educated people. The old learned men — ■ 
' the schoolmen ' as they were called — looked at every- 
thing with ecclesiastical eyes. All knowledge had thus 
got to be looked upon almost as a part of theology. 
Matters of science — e. g. whether the earth moved round 

shackled ^ e sun or *^ e sun roun( l tne earth — were 

science, settled by texts from the Bible, instead of by 

examining into the facts. So there was no freedom of 
inquiry even in scientific matters. A man who made 
discoveries in science might be stopped and punished 
if he found out that the old schoolmen were wrong in 
anything. 
Under the scholastic system the Christian religion, 



CH. II. 



The Scholastic System. 



J 3 



which in the days of Christ and the apostles was a thing of 
the heart (love of God and one's neighbour), and re i ig i on 
had grown into a theology — a thing of the also » 
head. The chief handybook of the theology of the school- 
men was a great folio volume of more than 1,000 pages. 

Thus the scholastic system necessarily kept both 
science and religion the property of a clerical class, and 
out of the hands of the common people, to whom 
Latin was a dead language ; while at the and kept 
same time it kept the learning even of the x ^™. from 

, . . . . , . - . 7 i ■ , the common 

learned world shackled by scholastic rules, people. 

It is important to see this clearly, because one great 
part of the work of the new era was to throw the gates 
of knowledge open to all men, and to set „ 

• i r r r i • -i • i Necessity of 

the minds of men free from this clerical or mental free- 
scholastic thraldom — to set both science ° m ' 
and religion free, for freedom was as important to the 
one as it was to the other. Without it there could be no 
real progress in civilization. 




UNIVERSITIES. Those founded before 1400 underlined. 



14 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

m The universities were the great centres of 

The Universi- , 

ties. the learned world. 

There were thirty or forty of them scattered over 
Europe, and they were in more or less close connexion 
with each other. They are marked on the map, and the 
chief of them should be carefully remembered. The 
oldest and most celebrated were Oxford and Cambridge 
in England, Paris and Orleans in France, Bologna and 
Padua in Italy, and Salamanca in Spain, Prague in 
Bohemia, and Cologne in Germany. These, at the begin- 
ning of the era of the Reformation, were all more than a 
hundred, and some two hundred years old. The young- 
est university in Europe was that of Wittenberg, founded 
in 1 502 by the Elector of Saxony. 

Students were in the habit of passing from one uni- 
versity to another. Oxford students would pass on to 
_ . Paris, and from Paris to Bologna, to take 

Students pass . ° 

from one to their degrees. And wherever there hap- 
pened to be a famous professor, thither stu- 
dents from all other universities nocked. 

Now the result of this was very important. 

As one example, we may take the great movement in 
the fourteenth century in the direction of reform. 

Wiclif wrote books in Latin at Oxford. They were 
copied and read all over Europe. Oxford students went 
to the newly-opened university at Prague. 
this in the days Wiclif 's writings made as much noise, and 
were as well known in Bohemia as they were 
in England. Huss and Jerome of Prague became the 
Bohemian successors of the English Wiclif, and thus 
the movement in favour of reform was transplanted from 
one country to another. What was discussed among 
the learned soon trickled down into the common talk of 
the people. So there arose out of Wiclif 's movement 



ch. II. The Scholastic System. 15 

the Lollard insurrection in England and the Hussite 
wars in Bohemia. 

What had thus happened before in the days when 
books were multiplied only by the slow work of the pen 
was still more likely to happen again in the days of the 
printing press. 

We shall see how in the new era these things were re- 
peated — how the spirit of revival of learning and religious 
reform spread, first among the learned from m , , 

.■ . , , . Will be re- 

umversity to university by students passing peated in the 
from one to another, now in Italy, now into new cra " 
England, now into Germany, and how at last it trickled 
down into the minds of the common people all over Eu- 
rope. 

The fact that both the ecclesiastical system and the 
learned world were coextensive with Christendom, and 
so closely united together, gave to Christendom a unity 
which alone made the work of the era possible. It was 
as though, in spite of distance and the diffi- m 

1 • J „. , , The work of 

culties of travelling, learned men were the era. 
nearer together than even now, in these 
days of railroads and steamboats and telegraphs. The 
work of the era was to rend Christendom asunder. 
Rome was no longer to be her capital. The Pope was 
no longer to be recognized everywhere as her spiritual 
head. The Latin language was no longer to be the 
common tongue of literature and books all over Europe. 
Young nations were to divide Europe between them, to 
have their own churches and clergy, their own lan- 
guages, their own literature, their own learned men and 
universities, and so to become more independent of each 
other and of Rome. And this was one of the stages 
through which Christian civilization was to pass in its 
onward course. 



16 State of Christendom. pt. i. 



{c) The Feudal System and the forces which were 
breaking it up. 
There was another system which was opposed to the 
„,,„,, growth of modern nations — the feudal sys- 

The feudal ° J 

system. tern. It belonged to the old order of things, 

and was fast decaying and going out. 
Divided coun- The feudal system hindered the growth of 
tr eu ^ord- ^ ree nat i° ns » not by tending too much to keep 
ships. up the unity of Christendom, but by dividing 

countries up into innumerable petty lordships. 

Each feudal lord was a little sovereign both as regards 
those below him — his vassals and serfs — and also as re- 
gards his fellows, except so far as he and they were con- 
trolled by higher feudal powers above them. He waged 
what petty wars he chose with his neighbours, and lorded 
it over his vassals and serfs, whilst himself very jealous- 
ly resisting any unusual interference from powers above 
him. 
_ ,. , The feudal system had already shown 

Decay of the . J . J 

feudai systen? . signs of falling to pieces, and in some coun- 
tries had very much died out. 

In some countries the petty lordships had fallen quite 
under the power of the Crown. 

By a long process, some of the feudal lords had grown 
„ , . .in power, while the multitude of smaller ones 

Subjection of , . 

feudal lords to had sunk into ever-mcreasmg insignificance. 
Especially in countries whereby the rule 
of inheritance lordships descended only to the eldest 
male heir, there was a natural tendency for lordships to 
unite by marriage and inheritance. The greater families 
intermarried and grew richer, and the royal family was 
in fact the one which had grown so much bigger than 
the rest that it kept swallowing up more and more into 



ch. ii. The Feudal System. 17 

itself. We shall see that it was so notably in France. 
The process went on more slowly in Germany, where the 
rule of inheritance was division among the male heirs, 
and so the tendency was towards more and more divi- 
sion, and an ever-increasing host of petty lordships. In 
Germany the feudal system was still in full force, and we 
shall see by-and-by how it prevented her from growing 
in'o a compact nation, and how much she had to suffer for 
w^nt of the nobles being subjected to a central authori- 
tv able to preserve the public peace and to T 

x x r Increasing 

curb their lawlessness and tyranny. But power of the 
speaking generally, things were more and 
more working in the new era towards the complete sub- 
jection of the feudal nobility in each nation to the cen- 
tral power, i. e. towards the supremacy of the Crown. 

But cojmnerce v?3.s breaking up the feudal system faster 
than anything else, and commerce had its chief seat in 
the towns. Trade, commerce, and manufactures were 
the life of the towns. The little towns were the markets 
of the country round, and their trade lay be- The growth 
tween the peasantry and the bigger towns. of commerce. 
The*e, in their turn, lived upon the share they had in 
tha<; wider commerce of the world, of which, by the aid 
of Map No. 2 (at the beginning of this volume), we must 
now try to grasp the main features. 

The Crusades had done much to open up a commerce 

between Asia and Europe. This commerce „,,.,, 

• 1 t -r- 1 • 1 ,■ «- , Trade of the 

with the East was mostly m the hands of the Mediterra- 

great cities on the Mediterranean Sea. The nean ' 

new way to the Indies was not yet open. The products 

of the East, its spices and its silks, were carried overland 

from the Persian Gulf and Red Sea to the Levant, and 

then shipped to the ports of Italy. Silk manufactures 

were also carried on in Italy, in Catalonia in Spain, and 



18 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

at Lyons in France. These eastern products and silks 
were the chief exports of the Mediterranean merchants. 

The commerce of the North Sea was equally important. 

The woollen manufactures of the north were its chief 
feature. Spain exported wool and some parts of Germany, 
but England was the great wool-growing country. The 
wool was woven into cloth in the looms of the eastern 
„,, counties of England, and Flanders on the 

1 he manu- ° 

facturing opposite shore of the North Sea. These 

were the chief manufacturing districts, 
though other towns in England, up the Rhine, and in 
Germany, had their weavers also. There were also con- 
siderable linen manufactures in the north of France. 

The North Sea was the great fishing ground, and 
T dried fish was a great article of commerce 

fisheries. when during Lent and on every Friday all 

Christendom lived upon fish. 

There was also a trade in furs and skins with North 
Russia, Norway, and Sweden. 

This commerce of the North was carried on by the 
Hanse towns — reaching from the shores of the Baltic 
m westward to the Netherlands, and inland in 

The com- 
merce of the Germany as far south as Cologne. There 

were eighty towns belonging to this league, 

and they had stations or factories at Novgorod, Bergen, 

London, and Bruges. 

Bruges in Flanders had been, and now Antwerp was 

the great central mart of the commerce of the world. 

Bruges and Here the merchants of the North exchanged 

Antwerp the their goods with the merchants of the 

central marts ° 

of commerce. Mediterranean. Here their ships met and 
divided the maritime commerce of the world be- 
tween them. Here, too, the maritime met the inland 
and overland trade — inland trade with the German 



ch. II. The Feudal System. 19 

towns, overland trade down the Rhine, T . 

, _ , . , _ Lines of 

through Germany, over the Alps, by the maritime, 
Brenner and Julier passes into Italy. There overland" 
was much trade between German and trade - 
Venetian merchants, and the contemporary historian, 
Machiavelli, states that all Italy was in a manner supplied 
with the commodities and manufactures of Germany. 
Since the Netherlands and Austria fell into the hands of 
the House of Hapsburg, and Maximilian was Emperor 
of Germany, there had also naturally sprung up a trade 
between the Rhine and the Danube. 

These were the great lines of trade, and in these lines 
lay the chief commercial towns, living on their share in 
the commerce of the world. 

Under the feudal system the towns had once been 
mostly subject to feudal lords, but they had m 

, , , . . , , . . , The towns 

early shown their independent spirit, and re- had mostly 
belled, or bargained for charters of freedom. got ree ' 
A free town was a little republic, organized for protection 
from foes without and for peaceful trade within. The 
members of each trade were banded together into guilds 
for mutual protection, and there was generally a sort of 
representative government — an upper and lower council 
of citizens, by whom the town was governed. 

We can easily understand how likely the towns were 
to hate the feudal lords, whose petty wars dis- 
turbed the public peace and made commerce towns hated 
hazardous. They had to fortify themselves feudalism 
against these petty wars, and their cavalcades of mer- 
chandize had to be protected by soldiers on the roads. 
So there had grown up out of commerce an anti-feudal 
power in Europe. In almost every country the 

, , , , ' J . and favored 

towns banded themselves together against the Crown. 
the feudal system, and when the power of the 



20 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

Crown began to rise, the towns were the stepping-stones 
by which it rose to the top. Kings invited the towns to 
send burgesses to the national Diets or Parliaments, 
and they were a growing power in almost every State. 

There was yet another most numerous and most im- 
portant class affected by feudalism — the peasantry. 
The feudal ^ e P easants > under the feudal system, 
peasantry. were more or less reduced to a condition of 
vassalage or serfdom. 

Let us understand what this was. The tribes who 
conquered Northern and Western Europe were a land- 
folk — people living by the land. They set- 
Once more free . ; i 

than under the tied m villages, and all the land belonging 
system. tQ eac h village belonged to the community, 
as it does now in Swiss valleys. The people were 
tenants only of their little allotments, with common 
rights over the unallotted pasture, woods, forests, and 
rivers : i. e. they had a common or joint use of them. 

Now the feudal system had put the feudal lords in the 
place of the community. The peasantry became tenants 
of these lords, paying rents sometimes in money, but 
chiefly in services of labour on their lords' lands. The 
lords, moreover, claimed more and more of the unal- 
lotted portion of the common lands as their own. The 
serfs were not allowed to leave their land, because it 
would rob the lords of their services. So the lords held 
their peasantry completely in their power. This was 
feudal serfdom when in full force. In some countries it 
was still in force, in others it had almost disappeared. 

In those countries where the lords were most subjected 
Where the to tne Crown, as in France and England, the 

warweKr serfs were likel Y to be best off and farthest 
feudal serfdom advanced on the road to freedom. In those 
est. in which the feudal lords were least sub- 



ch. II. The Feudal System. 21 

dued, and the central power least formed, as in Ger- 
many, we should expect to find feudal serfdom linger- 
ing on. And it was so. 

As the towns were the enemies of the feudal nobility, 
so they were the friends of the feudal peasantry. Com- 
merce introduced everywhere money pay- m , 

J . The towns 

ments instead of barter. Payment of rent m and commerce 

i-i-i Tjrt_- j 1 • j favoured free- 

services of labour was an old-fashioned kind dom of the 
of barter. Commerce, therefore, helped to P easantr y- 
introduce money rents and money wages, and where 
these were early introduced, as in France and England, 
the condition of the peasant was much improved. But 
more than this ; labour was often wanted in the towns : 
the wages paid in the towns often tempted the peasant to 
desert his land and feudal lord, and to flee to a town. The 
towns favoured this immigration into them of runaway 
serfs, and there grew up in some countries a settled rule 
of law that after residence in a town a year and a day 
they could not be reclaimed. 

Thus we see clearly how the feudal system was break- 
ing up under the influence of commerce and the com- 
bined power of the towns and the Crown. 

The petty lordships were becoming united into the 
larger unit of the nation, but we see on the other hand 
what a danger there was of the nation becoming divided 
into hostile classes. How were classes so contrarient as 
the feudal lords, the townspeople, and the peasantry, to 
be blended in one national life? This was the great 
problem modern civilization had to solve, and some na- 
tions succeeded much better than others in solving it. 



22 State of Christendom. PT. L 



CHAPTER III. 

THE MODERN NATIONS WHICH WERE RISING 
INTO POWER. 

(a) Italy. 
No country had made less progress towards becoming, 
a compact and united nation than Italy, the 

Not a united r . , . . r 

nation. very country in which Rome, the capital of 

Christendom, exercised most influence. 

The contemporary historian, Machiavelli, shows how 
, Rome was the cause of Italy's ruin and dis- 

Rome, accord- 
ing to Ma- unity. 

cause e fher e He says : ' Some are of opinion that the 

disunity. welfare of Italy depends upon the Church 

of Rome. I shall set down two unanswerable reasons to 

the contrary : — 

' ( i ) By the corrupt example of that court Italy has 
lost its religion and become heathenish and irreligious. 

' (2) We owe to Rome also that we are become di- 
vided and factious, which must of necessity be our ruin, 
for no nation was ever happy or united unless under the 
rule of one commonwealth or prince, as France and 
Spain are at this time. And the reason is that the Pope, 
though he claims temporal as well as spiritual jurisdic- 
tion, is not strong enough to rule all Italy himself, and 
whenever he sees any danger he calls in some foreign 
potentate to help him against any other power growing 
strong enough to be formidable. Therefore it is that, in- 
stead of getting united under one rule, Italy is split up 
into several principalities, and so disunited that it falls 
easily a prey to the power not only of the barbarians, 
but of any one who cares to invade it. This misfortune 
we Italians owe only to the Church of Rome.' 



ch. in. Italy. 23 

That these words of Machiavelli were too strictly true, 
we shall judge from the facts. 

We have seen what was the power of Rome. If ex- 
erted in favour of Christian civilization how many bless- 
ings might not the Church have earned ! „ 

. ° . . Rome a centre 

But it was notorious to every one living at of rottenness. 
the time that Rome used her power so ill, 
and that her own character and that of her Popes were 
so evil, that she had become both politically and spirit- 
ually the centre of wickedness and rottenness in Europe 
and especially in Italy. 

And this was no new thing. Men had been complain- 
ing of it for generations. The greatest poets of Italy 
had long before immortalized the guilt of _ 

^ rr* ■. r ^ ', n Dante on the 

Rome. Two centuries before, Dante had Popes, 
described the Popes of his day as men 

whose avarice 
O'ercasts the world with mourning, under foot 
Treading the good, and raising bad men up. 
Of Shepherds like to you, the Evangelist 
Was ware, when her who sits upon the waves 
With kings in filthy whoredom he beheld ! 

And soon after Dante, Petrarch had de- Dt , 

Petrarch on 

scribed Rome thus : — Rome. 

Once Rome ! now false and guilty Babylon ! 

Hive of deceits ! Terrible prison, 

Where the good doth die, the bad is fed and fattened ! 

Hell of the living! .... 

Sad world that dost endure it ! Cast her out ! 

And in the days of these great poets men, Reformers 
and Councils too, had tried to reform Rome, but without 
avail. A few more generations had passed and Rome 
was now not only unreformed but in respect to morals 
worse than ever. How much worse we know not only 



24 State of Christe7idom. pt. i 

from the censures of her poets, but from the facts of her 
contemporary historians. 
The Popes of Rome had for long not only wielded 
both political and spiritual power, but used 

Recent , r . , . . c ... 

Popes bad them to enrich their own families ; and as a 
rule they had recently been notoriously bad 
men. 

Alexander VI. was the reigning Pope, and the worst 

Rome ever had. His wicked reign lasted from 1492 to 

1503. His great aim was to bring Rome, 

VI. and Csesar and if he could, all Italy, into the hands of 

orgia. j^ s gt jjj w i c k e( j er son Csesar Borgia. The 

latter caused his own brother to be stabbed and thrown 
into the Tiber. He had his brother-in-law assassinated 
on his palace-steps. He stabbed one of his father's 
favourites who had taken shelter under the pontifical 
robes, so that the blood spirted into the Pope's face. 
™ . . Rich men were poisoned to get their wealth. 

I heir crimes. x ° 

The reign of these Borgias was a reign of | 
terror in Rome. At last, in 1503, the Pope fell, it is j 
said, into his own trap, and died of the poison he had J 
prepared for another. 

Another great Italian historian of the time, Guic- 
ciardini, records that the body of the Pope, black and 
loathsome, was exposed to public view in St. Peter's. 
And he goes on to say : — 

"All Rome flocked to that sight, and could not suf-p 
ficiently satiate their eyes with gazing on the remains of 
the extinct serpent, who by his immoderate ambition, 
pestiferous perfidy, monstrous lust, and every sort of 
horrible cruelty and unexampled avarice — selling with- 
out distinction property sacred and profane — had com- 
passed the destruction of so many by poison, and was 
now become its victim ! ' 



CH. III. 



Italy. 



25 



Effects of the 

Pope's 

wickedness. 



Machiavelli was right then, that the example of Rome 
in Italy was an evil one. That it made the Italians hate 
the Church, and drove thinking men, while 
they remained superstitious, to doubt Chris- 
tianity, and to welcome even Pagan reli- 
gions, because they seemed so much purer than that 
which Rome offered them, we shall see by-and-by. This 
is what he meant when he spoke of the Italians becom- 
ing ' heathenish ' — it was exactly the fact. 
And now as to this other statement, that Rome was 

the cause of the divisions, 
and therefore of the ruin 
of Italy; this also, the 
facts of the recent history 
of Italy will make clear. 
The map shows how 
Italy was in the main 
divided — Venice, Milan, 
and Flor- 

Main divi- 

ence to the sions of 
north; Na- Italy " 
pies to the south; the 
States of the Church between. 

(1) The States of the Church. Over these the Popes 
had a shadowy kind of rule, but they were made up of 
petty lordships and cities, claiming independence, and 
even Rome was ruled by its Barons rather _ 

J Papal States. 

than by the Popes; or to speak more cor- 
rectly the Barons and the Pope were always quarrelling 
which of the two should rule. The Pope lived in his 
strong castle of St. Angelo, close by the city. 

(2) Venice was a commercial city, 1,000 years old, 
ruled by its nobles and possessing territory like ancient 




26 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

„ . Rome, ruled for the benefit of its citizens 

Venice. . 

rather than its subjects. 

(3) Florence was also a commercial republic, but not 
governed by its nobles. It was a democratic republic, 

but one family of citizens — the Medici — had 

Florence. -,.-,-, i ■, 

grown by trade richer than the rest, and 
usurped almost despotic power. It also possessed con- 
siderable territory. 

(4) Milan was a State to which there were many rival 
claims. The King of France, as Duke of Orleans, claimed 

it by inheritance from the last Duke of Mi- 

Mila.n. 

Ian. The King of Naples (and Spain through 
him) also had a claim, and the Emperor of Germany 
claimed it as having reverted to the Empire. Meanwhile 
the Sforza family had possession, and kept it off and on 
till 1 512. 

(5) Naples was also a State to which there were rival 
claims. Its nobles had usurped almost uncontrolled 
power. The right to feudal sovereignty over it was dis- 

puted between the Counts of Anjou (France) 
and the King of Arragon (Spain). The lat- 
ter had long had possession, and it had descended to a 
bastard branch of that house. 

That the Popes were continually fomenting quarrels 
between these Italian States and bringing 'barbarian* 
princes to fight their battles on Italian soil, a few facts 
will show. 

Alexander VI. and Csesar Borgia first stirred up 
Venice and Milan against Naples. Then they invited 
Charles VIII. of France, who in 1494 crossed the Alps, 
overturned the Medici at Florence, and entered Naples 
in 1495. Then in 1495 the Pope, Venice, and Milan 
joined with Ferdinand of Spain in turning the French 
out of Naples again. 



ch. in. Germany. 27 

In 1500 Louis XII. of France took Milan, and then 
he and Ferdinand of Spain jointly invaded Naples. But 
they quarrelled, and Sfiain, under Gonsalvo , , 

-, ^ , , r 1 , ~ t , Papal politics 

de Cordova, defeated the French, and so the ruin of 
Ferdinand became King of Naples, and tay ' 
(having Sardinia and Sicily before) of the two Sicilies 
in 1505. 

In 1 503 Julius II. became Pope, and devoted his ten 
years' reign to constant war. In 1 509 he, France, Spain, 
and Germany formed the League of Cambray against 
Venice. But the robbers quarrelled on the eve of victory, 
and so Venice was not ruined. 

In 1 51 1 Louis XII. of France tried to get Henry VIII. 
of England to join him in deposing Julius II. But Julius 
succeeded in getting England and Spain and Germany 
to join his ' Holy League ' against France. 

After driving Louis XII. of France out of Italy, 
Julius II. died in 15 13, and was succeeded by Leo X. 

(3) Gennany. 
Next to Italy, Germany was furthest of all modern 
nations from having attained national unity. The Ger- 
man, or, as it called itself, ' the Holy Roman ' XT , 

. . . , Had not yet 

Empire, was a power which belonged to the attained 
old order of things. Like the Pope of Rome, unity na 
the Emperor considered himself as the head 
of Christendom. He called himself ' Caesar,' p e h ror Eni - 
and ' Kwag of Rome ; ' and, as successor to claimed to 
the Roman Empire, which the Germans had and King of 
conquered, claimed not only a feudal chief- 
tainship over nations of German origin, but also a sort 
of vague sovereignty over all lands. As the Pope of 
Rome was the spiritual head, so the Emperor considered 
himself the ' temporal head of all Christian people.' 



28 



State of Christendom. 



PT. I. 



Switzerland had indeed severed herself from the Ger- 
man Empire. England, Spain, and France had never 
properly belonged to it. But the French king had 
neverthe less sometimes sworn fealty to the Empire; 
and even Henry VIII. of England, when it suited his 
purpose (/. e. when he wanted to be Emperor !) took 
care to point out to the Electors that while his rivals 
His claim to Francis I- of France, was a foreigner, in 
universal era- electing an English Emperor, they would 
Swy. not be departing from the German to7igue. 

On other occasions he took care to insist 
that England, however Saxon in her speech, had never 
been subject to the Empire. So the claim to universal 
sovereignty was very shadowy indeed. 

When a vacancy occurred, the new Emperor was 
elected under the 'Golden 

Bull' of 1356, 

by seven Prince 
Electors, viz. : [On the 
Rhine]. The three Arch- 
bishops of Mayence, Treves, 
and Cologne, and the Count 
Palatine of the Rhine. [On 
the Elbe]. The king of 
Bohemia, the Elector of 
Saxony, the Margrave of 
Brandenburg. 

The ceremony of coronation showed the feudal nature 
of the Empire. When elected, the Emperor attended 
high mass. Then the Archbishop of Mayence, as- 
The feudal sisted by Cologne and Treves, demanded 
ceremony. of him, 'Will you maintain the Catholic 

faith ? ' ' I will.' Then he demanded of his 
brother electors, 'Will you recognize the elected as 



How elected. 




THE SEVEN PRINCE ELECTORS 



CH. in. Germany. 29 

Emperor ? ' ' So be it.' Then he was robed in the robes, 
girt with the sword, and crowned with the crown of 
Charlemagne. Then came the banquet. The King of 
Bohemia, in true feudal fashion, was the imperial cup- 
bearer ; the Count Palatine carved the first slice from 
the roasted ox ; the Duke of Saxony rode up to his stir- 
rups into a heap of oats, and filled a measure with grain 
for his lord ; and lastly, the Margrave of Brandenburg 
rode to a fountain and filled the imperial ewer with water. 

When elected, the Emperor had little real power in 
Germany ; and, indeed, as time went on he seemed to 
have less and less. 

Once large domains had belonged to the Emperor: 
some in Italy, some on the Rhine. But former emperors 
had lost or ceded the Italian estates to ^ T 

t , - , , -, . . , No imperial do- 

Italian nobles and cities during struggles mains, 
with the Popes ; while those on the Rhine 
had been handed over to the Archbishops of Mayence, 
Treves, and Cologne, who were Electors, to secure votes 
and political support. For some generations there had 
been no imperial domains at all ; not an inch of territory 
in Germany or Italy came to the Emperor with his impe- 
rial crown. The Emperor was therefore reduced to a 
mere feudal headship. 

Nor had the Emperor, as feudal head, much power in 
Germany. He found it very hard to get troops or 
money from the German people. Maximi- „ „ 

j. , „ . Small imperial 

han, the reigning Emperor, was notoriously power. 
poor, and declared that the Pope drew a 
hundred times larger revenue out of Germany than he 
did. He was a powerful sovereign in Europe because 
he was head of the Austrian house of Hapsburg, which 
was rising into great power in Europe by its alliances. 
Already possessed of Austria and Bohemia, Maxi- 



3° State of Christendom. PT. I. 

milian had married Mary of Burgundy, and the Nether- 
The Em eror ^ an( ^ s - His son Philip thus was heir-appa- 
Maximiiian, rent to those provinces as well as Austria. 
House of nan Philip married Joanna, daughter of Isabella 
Hapsburg. of Spain . and SQ their SQn charles became 

heir to Spain also. Thus was the House of Hapsburg 
pushing itself into power and influence. The German 
Empire was the crowning symbol of their power rather 
than the reason of it. In the case of Maximilian, it was 
the power of Austria that made the German Emperor 
great. By-and-by, as we shall see, when Charles V. of 
Charles V Austria, Spain, and the Netherlands rises to 
the Empire and becomes the most powerful 
-prince in Europe, it is by Spain, not Germany, that he 
wields his still greater influence. 

The power of the Emperor was far less in Germany 
than in his own domains, for in Germany his power was 
checked by the Diet or feudal parliament of the Empire. 
The Diets ^ e Diet was a feudal, not a representative 
parliament; i. e. only the Emperor's feudal 
vassals had a claim to attend and vote in it. 

The Diet met and voted in three separate houses : 

i. The Electors (except the King of Bohemia, who 
had no voice except in the election of an Em- 
peror). 

2-. The Princes, lay and ecclesiastical. 

3. The Free Imperial Cities (z*. e. those cities which 
held direct of the Emperor). 
The Electors and Princes had most power. Only what 
was agreed upon by them was last of all submitted to the 
No power to House °f Cities. To secure the carrying out 
enforce their of the decrees of the Diets, there had also 

decrees. , , 

recently been some attempts at an organiza- 
tion of the Empire. It was divided in circles for the 



CH. in. Germany. 31 

maintenance of order ; but this, though plausible on pa-_ 
per, had little effect in reality, because the Diets had no 
real power to enforce their decrees. 

Germany was, in fact, still under the feudal system- 
still divided up into petty lordships — more Thefeudals 
so than perhaps any other country ; certainly tem still pre- 

Vcillcd. 

more so than England, Spain, or France. 

One reason for this was, as we have seen, that the 
German law of inheritance divided the lordships between 
the sons of a feudal lord on his death; so _ .... . e 

Subdivision of 

there was constant subdivision, and in con- lordships by 

, ,. law of inherit- 

sequence an ever-increasing host of petty ance. 
sovereignties. 

The mass of the feudal lords were petty and poor, and 
yet proud and independent, resisting any attempts of the 
powers above them, whether Emperor, or 
Diets, or Princes, to control them. They £ u S ant petty 
claimed the right of waging war ; and, by 
their petty feuds, the public peace was always being 
broken. 

They lived a wild barbarian life in times of peace 
(i. e. when not at feud with some neighbouring lord), de- 
voted to the chase, trampling over their tenants' crops, 
scouring the woods with their retainers and their dogs. 
In times of war and feuds, with helmets, breastplates, and 
cross-bows they lay in ambush in the forests watching an 
enemy, or fell upon a train of merchants on the roads 
from some town or city with which they had a quarrel. 
They became as wild and lawless as the wolves. 

Gotz von Berlichingen (popularly known as 'Gotz with 
the Iron Hand'), and Franz von Sickingen were types of 
this wild knighthood. They were champions 
of fist-law (faust-recht). They called it pri- f a thr sneSS 
vate war. but it was often plunder and pillage krfi « hte - 



3 2 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

by which they lived. Gotz was indeed more like the head 
of a band of robbers than anything else. He one day 
saw a pack of wolves fall upon a flock of sheep. * Good 
luck, dear comrades,' said Gotz, 'good luck to us all and 
everywhere!' These lawless knights were indeed like 
wolves, and, just as much as the wild animals they 
hunted, belonged to the old order of things, which must 
go out to make way for advancing civilization. 

The free towns of Germany were her real strength. 
The citizens were thrifty, earned much by their com- 
The towns of merce, spent little, and so saved much. 

Germany. Each dty wag a j-^ free ^^ ^ ^^ had 

mostly thrown off their feudal lords), self-governed, like 
a little republic, fortified, well stored with money in its 
treasury, a year's provisions and firing often stored up 
against a siege. The little towns were of course de- 
pendent in part on the peasantry round, buying their 
corn, and in return supplying them with manufactured 
goods. But the bigger towns lived by a wider commerce, 
and held their heads above the peasantry. Above all, 
they hated the feudal lords, whose feuds and petty wars 

Their leagues and lawless deeds P ut their commerce in 
for mutual peril. Two hundred years ago, sixtv towns 

defence. - _. . ■,,, , 

on the Rhine had leagued themselves to- 
gether to protect their commerce. After that had come 
the league 1 of the Hanse Towns, chiefly in the North of 
Germany, but including Cologne and twenty-nine adja- 
cent towns, and aiming at defending commerce from 
robberies by land as well as piracy by sea. 

They had to form these leagues because Germany 
was divided and without a real head— not yet a nation— 

1 See the Map of Commerce. 



central power. 



ch. in. Germany. 33 

though all that was good and great in it was 

• 1 • r ■ 1 i-r ,r n Want of a 

sighing for more national life, for a central central power 

■, , • to maintain 

representative power strong enough to mam- t h e public 
tain the public peace, but hitherto sighing P eace - 
in vain, finding in her Emperor little more help than 
Italy found in her Pope. 

No class in Germany had suffered more from want of 
a central power than the peasantry. They still were in 
feudal serfdom. While in .other countries, 
where there was y^jj&l-established ceflJjf^t ditionofthe 
government, the/lpfr of the peasantry had* p^ng^ 
improved and s&fdom almost been got rid ' ^fder fbr d 
of, here in Germany Jjneir lot had grown ^£" t ° fa / . 
harder and harder 

The German peasantT^^i^^^^Sss 1 ^" still a feudal 
tenant. In many ways he was no doubt better off than 
a labourer for wages. His house was no mere labourer's 
cottage — it was a little farm. He had about him his 
land and his live stock, his barn and his stack. Under 
the same roof with his family his cows and pigs lay upon 
their straw and he upon his bed. On the raised cooking 
hearth the wood crackled under the great iron pot hung 
on its rack from the chimney-hood above, while sauce- 
pans and gridirons, pewter dishes and pitchers with their 
pewter lids were hung upon the walls ; the oak table and 
coffee were heirlooms with his house and his land. In 
mere outward comforts many a free peasant, working 
for wages and having no land to till for himself, would 
gladly have changed places with him; but behind all 
was his thraldom to his feudal lord. 

He had traditions of old and better days, when he was 
far more free, when his services were not so hard and the 
exactions of his lord not so great. But in History of 
the fourteenth century the Black Death had 'Bauer.' 
D 



34 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

thinned the population of Germany and made labouf 
scarce. In other countries, where the law of the land 
had fixed the amount of the services, and where 
the influence of commerce had substituted money- 
payments for services, this scarcity of labour strengthened 
the peasant in his struggle for freedom. But in Germany, 
where there was no law to step in, and where services 
continued, the scarcity of labour was only likely to make 
the lords insist all the more upon their performance ; and 
so they had encroached more and more on the peasants' 
rights, enacted more and more labour from them, in- 
creased their burdens, robbed them more and more of 
their common rights over the pastures, the wild game, 
and the fish in the rivers, grown more and more inso- 
lent, till the peasants in some places had sunk almost 
into slavery. It was galling to them to have to work for 
their lords in fine weather, and to have to steal in their 
own little crops on rainy days. Small a thing as it 
might be, perhaps it was still more galling to receive 
orders on holidays to turn out and gather wild straw- 
berries for the folks at the Castle. Hard, too, it seemed 
to them when, on the death of a peasant, the lord's 
agent came and carried off from the widow's home the 
heriot or 'best chattel,' according to the feudal custom — 
perhaps the horse or the cow on which the family was 
dependent. 

But however bad a pass things might come to, there 
was no remedy — no law of the land to appeal to against 
^ , „. the encroachments of their lords. The Ro- 

Rebelhon 

his only man civil law had indeed been brought in 

by the ecclesiastics, and the lords favoured 
it because it tended to regard serfs as slaves. The serfs 
naturally hated it because it hardened their lot. There 
was no good in appealing to it. It was one of their 



CH. Ill 



Spain. 



35 



grievances. So the peasants of each place must fight it 
out with their own lords. They must rebel or submit, 
waiting for better days, if ever these should come ! 

[c) Spam. 

Spain was destined to become the first power in 
Europe. She rapidly grew into a united nation, and 
during the era attained the highest point of Becoming 
power and prosperity she ever reached ; but the firs * 
she fell soon after from the pinnacle on which Europe" 1 
she then stood, and has never since risen again so high. 

Ever since t.he conquest of Spain by the Goths and 
Vandals, in the eighth century, it had been a feudal 
nation; and, as in most other feudal coun- p mvero fthe 
tries, the power had got into the hands of nobl es. 
the feudal lords or nobles. But Spain was singular in 
this, that it had passed under a long period of Moham- 
medan rule. 




By the invasions of the Moors the feudal chiefs of 
Spain had been driven up into the mountains of the 
north, while probably the peasantry mostlv 

. , . \ , Driven into 

remained in the conquered country, subject the north by 
to the Moors.- By slow degrees the feudal e ° ors " 
chiefs reconquered the northern provinces- till the Moors 



36 State of Christendom. pt. I. 

retained only the rich southern provinces ; and as bit af- 
ter bit was reconquered by the nobles, it became a little 
independent state under the feudal chief who recon- 
quered it. 

Already, however, there had grown up in Spain the 
(three kingdoms of Castile, Arragon, and Navarre, fa- 
R of voure d by the influence of the towns. 

Spain from the Owing to the constant struggles going" on 

Moors, except t , *\ , , - . && & S 

Granada. there had been for long no safety except 

in the towns. These had further grown in 
power and importance by trade and manufactures, and 
had become little states — like little Venices — each with 
its independent government. 

Both in Castile and Arragon the monarch was scarce- 
ly more powerful than the Emperor in Germany. His 

„. , , power was controlled by the Cortes or par- 
Kingdoms of \. J , , , 
Castile and liament, at which met the nobles, deputies 

rragon from the towns, and clergy. And to the 

Cortes belonged the power of levying taxes and enacting 
laws. 

Such was the state of things when, by the marriage of 
Ferdinand of Castile to Isabella of Arragon (in 1481), all 

. , , Spain, except Navarre and Granada, was 

united under x , x 

Ferdinand and united under one monarchy, and from this 
time the tendency was for the throne to be- 

mor^an^Sorc COme m01 * e and m0re absolute. It was One 

absolute. f the first objects of Ferdinand and Isabella 

to extend the power of the monarchy. 

Spain had found, as the Germans had found, that 
without some central power it was hard to keep the 
peace, to protect trade and commerce, and to put down 
robbery and crime. The cities had united in a ' Holy 
Brotherhood ' for this purpose, and Ferdinand sided with 
them in this object. But what more than anything else 



ch. in. Spain. 37 

counteracted the feudal tendency to separate into little 
petty states, and to strengthen the national feeling and 
make it rally round the common centre of 
the throne, was the war long waged by Fer- G?a?ada. ° 
dinand, and at length successful, against the 
last stronghold of the Moors in Granada. In 1492 Gra- 
nada was taken, the 700 years' struggle ended, and the 
Moors driven forever out of Spain. Thus was all Spain 
(except the little state of Navarre, under shelter of the 
Pyrenees) united in one nation. The modern kingdom 
of Spain, thus formed, rose up at once to be one of the 
first powers of Europe. 

We have already seen how Charles VIII. of France 
had been invited by Pope Alexander VI. to conquer 
Naples. As a bribe to keep Ferdinand (who 
had a rival claim on Naples) quiet while he policy to pom- 
went on this raid on Naples, he had ceded p e e pam " 
to Ferdinand the little state of Perpigiian, on the Span- 
ish side of the Pyrenees. Ferdinand was intent on the 
completion of the kingdom of Spain, and took the bribe. 
We sjiall soon find him (in 1512) obtaining possession 
of Navarre. In the meantime the result of the Italian 
wars was that he got hold of Naples ; and having the 
islands of Sardinia and Sicily already, he became King 
of the ' Two Sicilies,' as well as of Spain. 

Another fact added to the power of Spain. It was 
under Spanish auspices that Columbus discovered Ame- 
rica. This not only threw the gold of the mines of Peru 
into the treasuries of Spain : it added _ , , 

*■ Columbus. 

another great laurel to her fame. It was 
Spain that had driven the Moors out of Western Europe ; 
it was Spain that enlarged Christendom by the discovery 
of the New World. 



38 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

_ . The foreign policy of princes in those 

licy. Mar- days was very much influenced by the mar- 
riages they planned and effected for their 
children. 

Ferdinand's first aim was to get all the Spanish Pe- 
ninsula under the power of the Spanish Crown. So he 
married his eldest daughter to the King of Portugal, in 
hopes of some day uniting the two Crowns. This came 
to pass in the person of Philip II., the husband of the 
English Queen Mary. 

His next policy was to ally himself with such foreign 
powers as would best help him to secure his ends. 
There were two reasons why he did not ally himself with 
France. France was his rival in Italy. He had fought 
with France for Naples, and meant to keep it. He also 
wanted Navarre to complete the Spanish kingdom. 
France claimed it also. The aim of Spanish foreign 
policy was, therefore, to work against France. 

By the marriage of his daughter Catherine to the King 
of England, and Joanna to the heir of the rising Aus- 
trian House of Hapsburg, who held the Netherlands, 
and whose head, Maximilian I., was Emperor of Ger- 
many, he connected himself with the two powers who, 
like himself, were jealous of France — Engla?id, because 
part of France had so long been claimed as belonging to 
the English Crown — the House of Hapsburg, because 
France had got hold of part of Burgundy (which former- 
ly belonged to the same Burgundian kingdom as the 
Netherlands). 

And on the whole, though his schemes 

Success of , ... 

these alliances, did not prosper in his lifetime, they did suc- 
ceed in making Spain the first power in Eu- 
rope during the next reign. 
When Queen Isabella died, Joanna became Queen of 



ch. in. Spain. 39 

Castile. She, however, was insane, and her husband 

Philip dying soon after, Ferdinand held the reins of 

Castile in her name as Regent. On his death, in 15 16, 

Castile and Arragon were again united, under Charles 

V., and Spain became greater than ever. 

The domestic policy of Ferdinand and Isabella had 

also for its object the consolidation of Spain _ 

J 7 Domestic po- 

under their throne. Their great minister licy. 

was Cardinal Ximenes, whose policy was to 
strengthen the central power of the Crown by engaging 
all Spain in a national war against the Moors, and by 
strengthening the towns (or loyal element) at the ex- 
pense of the feudal nobles (the disloyal element, in Spain 
as elsewhere). The subjugation of the no- Sub - uationof 
bles to the Crown was in a great measure the nobles. 
effected, and the Crown became more and more abso- 
lute. 

Not content with driving out of Spain the last rem- 
nant of the Mohammedan Moors, the Catho- The i nqu i s i- 
lic zeal of the king and queen and Ximenes tlon - 
turned itself against the Jews and heretics. They founded 
the 'Inquisition' in Spain, which in a genera- Banishment 
tion burned thousands of heretics. They of the J ews - 
expelled, it is said, more than 100,000 Jews from their 
Spanish homes. These first took refuge in Portugal, and 
soon after, driven from thence, were scattered over 
Europe. 

But notwithstanding this zeal for the Catholic faith, 
by which Ferdinand and Isabella earned the title of 'the 
Catholic' there was no notion in the minds of Ximenes or 
his royal master and mistress to sacrifice Spain to Rome. 
They were as zealous in reforming the morals of the 
clergy and monks as in rooting out heresy. They de- 
manded from the Pope bulls enabling them to visit and 



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State of Christendom. 



PT. I. 



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ch. in. Spain. 41 

reform the monasteries. They claimed the Inde endent 
right in many cases of appointing their own policy to- 

_ . , . , , , , , r . , wards Rome. 

bishops. And when the scandals of Alexan- 
der VI. 's wicked reign came to their knowledge, they 
threatened to combine with other sovereigns in his 
' correction' 

One other thing we must notice. The discoveries of 
Columbus, followed up by the conquest of Mexico and 
Peru, gave to Spain suddenly a colonial em- colonial po- 
pire to govern. Her colonies in the New lic y- 
World were in one sense the gem in her Crown. Her 
dreams of wealth in gold and silver were more than 
realized. To have extended Christendom into a new 
world seemed in itself a worthy exploit to the Catholic 
zeal of Queen Isabella. Her royal anxiety to convert 
the heathen inhabitants of the new-found lands to the 
Catholic faith was no doubt as genuine as her anxiety 
to root heresy out of Spain. 

She sent out Catholic missionaries, but the selfishness 
of her Spanish colonists introduced slavery instead of 
Christianity. In these first Spanish colonies 
was begun that cruel policy by which the 
native races were exterminated — worked to death — and 
then African negroes introduced to supply their place. 
The introduction of slavery, and its necessary feeder — ■ 
the slave trade — was a blot upon the colonial policy, not 
only of Spain but of Christendom. It was essentially 
contrary to the genius of modern civilization, and we 
know how great a struggle has been needful in our own 
times to prevent its ruining the greatest of the colonies 
of the New World. 

(d) France. 
Machiavelli says, 'The kings of France are at this 



42 



State of Christendo?n. 



PT. I. 



France had 
grown into 
one nation. 




time more rich and powerful than ever.' So they were. 
The dynasty of the Capets, 

which began before the time 

How all of th e Norman 

conquest of Eng- 
land and lasted 

down to the 'Louis Capef 

(Louis XVI.) who was put 

to death during the French 

Revolution, had now ruled 

France for about five hun- 
dred years. But the France 

ruled by the first Capet 

was only the portion marked dark on the map. It was 

as though the King of England had ruled only York- 
shire. The rest of France was divided among the 

great Barons. 

These Baronies, or 'Duchies' had gradually been ab- 
sorbed into the kingdom. The dates when they thus fell 

in are marked on the map. 
Now if we look at France 
at the begin- 
ning of the 
new era, we 
shall see, from 

comparing the two maps, 

how she had grown, and 

how she claimed now not 

only all France, but Milan 

and Naples also. She had, 

in fact, become the second 

great power in Europe, and 

by aiming to become the 

first, made herself the great rival of Spain. 



France 

claimed Milan 
and Naples 
also. 




FRANCE 
IN THE ERA 



ch. in. France. 43 

What were the secrets of her growing power? As we 
have seen, Machiavelli said that Italy was weaker than 
either Spain or France, because the latter were each of 
them united under one Crown. 

We have now to mark the reasons given . 

This union of 

by him why the Duchies of France had be- all France the 
come united under the Crown. 

(1) The Crown was not elective, as in Ger- redi 
many, but hereditary in the royal family. tary; 

(2) The rule of inheritance in France was 

not division among all the sons, but descent | e ™ t °" re . 
to the eldest son only. 

(3) Intermarriages with the royal family inter- 

1 -I, -r-, tii marriage with 

not only made the great Barons loyal to the the royal 
throne, but sometimes united their Duchies famil y- 
to the Crown under one heir; e.g. the kings 
of France, as heirs of the Duchies of Anjou and Orleans, 
claimed both those Duchies and also their rights to Na- 
ples and Milan. 

(4) The towns, as in Spain and elsewhere, had fa- 
voured the growth of the central power as the best 
means of freeing themselves from their old 

feudal lords. Most of them had long ago 

obtained charters of freedom, and now held only of the 

Crown. 

The final struggle of the Crown with the great feudal 
Barons had been concluded just before the era com- 
menced. It had been a hard struggle be- _,. . . 

&& p ina l stru ggle 

tween Louis XL and the Duke of Burgundy, of the Crown 
The king had prevailed, and from that time ^undy. 
the unity of France was settled. She had 
become powerful enough to hold her own against both 
internal and foreign foes. 

England had once claimed a great part of France, but 



44 State of Christendom. ft. I. 

_ ,. . there was henceforth no real chance of 

English con- . . 

quests at her getting it back again. She could no 

longer find allies on French soil against 

France. 

It is true that we shall find Henry VIII. still dream- 
ing sometimes of reversing the decision of the ' hundred 
years' war' which had ended in the withdrawal of Eng- 
land from all France except the town of Calais ; and we 
shall find Spain and England combining during the era 
more than once to crush France. But in reality the 
object of these wars we shall find to be not so much the 
dismemberment of France as opposition to the aggressive 
policy of Louis XII. and Francis I., and their invasions 
of Italy. 

The hundred years' war with England had also 

tended to consolidate the French nation. It was a 

national and even popular struggle to turn out a foreign 

foe. It necessitated the levying of national 

The English . , , / b . 

wars had armies and the payment of nanonal taxes. 

Aenftio^and It did for France, to some extent, what the 
increase the wars w - lt ^ fa e Moors did for Spain: it 

power of the r 

Crown: strengthened the central power of the 

Crown, and gave it a recognized place as 
natural head and leader of the nation, in peace as well 
as in war. 

But the misfortune of France was that in outwardly 

becoming a great nation by uniting all the Duchies 

under the Crown, and so enlarging the size 

but there were , . .. 

seeds of dis- of France on the map, sad mistakes were 
union within. madej whkh preV ented her growth in inter- 
nal unity, which sowed the seeds of bitter feeling between 
classes, and ended in producing her Great Revolution. 

We cannot note too carefully these fatal mistakes. 

(i) The king got the power of levying taxes — the 



ch. in. France. 45 

' taille ' — without the consent of the people. 

, Royal taxes 

The ' Estates General, or French Parha- without con- 
ment, which had hitherto had a voice in people. 1 e 
matters of taxation, hereafter had none ; the 
Crown became absolute. 

(2) The king, successful in his war „ 

v / & ' Royal stand- 

against England, henceforth out of these ingarmy. 
taxes kept a large standing army. 

These things, said Philip de Commines, the con- 
temporary French historian of Louis XL, 'gave a wound 
to his kingdom which will not soon be closed.' 

He was right, for these two things kept classes apart 
and broke up the internal unity of France. To see how 
they did this, let us look at each class separately. 

The nobility or ?ioblesse of France were made into 
a permanently separate caste. In old times they paid 
no taille, because they gave their military services to the 
king in his wars. Now there was a standing army they 
were less and less needed as soldiers, yet their freedom 
from taxation remained. They were a privi- m , 

, , , . . / . , F The noblesse 

leged class, and intermarried with one an- a privileged 
other. Their estates went down to their untaxe caste - 
eldest sons, but the younger sons, too, belonged to the 
noblesse. So they became a very numerous class, 
poor, but proud of their blood and freedom from 
taxes. 

The peasantry, on the other hand, were the burdened 
class. In some respects they were much The pea santry 
better off than the German peasantry, notserfc, 
Very early in their history feudal serfdom had been 
abolished in the north of France, especially in Normandy ; 
while in most parts their services in labour had been 
long ago changed into fixed rents, paid most often in 
«:orn; wine, or fruits. But their young crops still suf- 



46 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

but paying fered from the lord's game. They still had 
rents X.0V& and fees and heriots to pay, and forced 

labour to give on the roads. They still looked up to the 
feudal lord as to a master, and the lord down upon them 
as born for service. There was an impassable barrier 
of blood between the two classes. The Church added 
her claims — her tithes, as in other countries, 

and tithes 

and the endless fees and money payments, 
which made her so obnoxious. Bishops and abbots, 
in France as in Germany, had large estates as well as 
tithes, and so were landlords and princes as well as 
priests, drawing, Machiavelli says, two-fifths of the 
annual revenues of the kingdom into their ecclesiastical 
coffers. Lastly came the extra burden of the taille, 
growing with the military needs of kings who, having an 
, .„ army, and not content with turning out the 

and taille. J ' . & 

English and conquering refractory barons, 
must needs lay claim to Milan and Naples, and invade 
Italy. 

Here is a picture drawn by the peasants themselves of 
their hard lot, as they complained to the States General 
on the accession of Charles VIII., and laid their grie- 
vances before the new monarch, hoping for a remedy 
which never came. 

' During the past thirty-four years troops have been 
'ever passing through France and living on the poor 
Their grie- ' people. When the poor man has managed 

ranees. < by ^g sa l e f ^ e coat on J^g Dac l Cj after 

'hard toil, to pay his taille, and hopes he may live out 
' the year on the little he has left, then come fresh troops 
'to his cottage, eating him up. In Normandy multi- 
'tudes have died of hunger. From want of beasts men 
' and women have to yoke themselves to the carts, and 
' others, fearing that if seen in the daytime they will be 



ch. in. France. 47 

' seized for not having paid their taille, are compelled to 
' work at night. The king should have pity on his poor 
'people, and relieve them from the said tailles and 
' charges,' 

Alas ! Charles VIII. , instead of listening to their com- 
plaints, took to invading Italy ! increasing their taille 
and spilling more of their blood. 

When to all this we add the consciousness that while 
they, the much-enduring peasantry, were bearing their 
increasing burdens, the noblesse were free from them, 
can we wonder if the peasantry should learn to hate as 
well as envy the nobles ? 

The middle class in order to escape the incidents of 
the rural taxation more and more left the rural districts to 
live in the towns. Not sharing the blood or 
the freedom from taille of the nobles, there class leave 
was no mixing or intermarrying with them, fo^the" 
They were of different castes. Neither did towns - 
the men of the towns sympathize with the peasantry. 
They had their taille to pay like the peasantry, but under 
their charters they enjoyed privileges which the peasant 
did not. They were merchants rather than manufactu- 
rers. Some linen manufactures were carried on in 
Brittany and Normandy, but mostly France was supplied 
with goods from the looms of Flanders in exchange for 
corn and wine. The towns were the markets in which 
the products of the peasant were exchanged, and the 
townsmen thus had the chance of throwing a part of 
their burdens on their rural customers in the shape of 
tolls and dues. While thus the noblesse grew prouder 
and poorer, and the peasantry were more and more bur- 
dened, the middle classes in the towns grew richer and 
more and more powerful. 

Hence the gulf between different classes in France was 



48 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

ever widening. The Crown was absolute and uncon- 
trolled by any parliament, the noblesse a privileged caste, 
the middle class settling in the towns, while the poor 
peasantry were left to bear their burdens alone in the 
country. France had grown a big united 

Separation - 1 ° . .... 

of classes the country on the map, but looking withm the 
French 06 m nation, a state of things had begun which, if 
polity. unreformed, was sure in the end to produce 

revolution, though it might not come yet. 

In the meantime the first false steps of the absolute 
kings of France were those attempts at aggrandizement 
Love of which led them to invade Italy and prove 

f ° rei s? wars their strength in a long rivalship with Spain. 
in her policy. To gratify a royal lust for empire and mili- 
tary glory they were ready to sacrifice the welfare of the 
French people. 

[e] England. 
England had advanced further on the path of modern 
civilization than any other country. 

The English people had long ago become 
nation a compact nation, with a strong central 

formed! government, and with one law for all classes 

within it. 
England had passed under the feudal system, and, like 
other countries, had her separate feudal elements, need- 
ing to be blended into one compact whole. But happily 
in England this work had in good measure been done. 

Her feudal nobles, especially since the wars of the 

Roses, had been thoroughly subdued under the central 

power. Early in her history the petty feudal 

notYcLst? lords had sunk into commoners. Unlike the 

noblesse of France, the nobility of England 

was not a separate caste. The younger sons of nobles 



ch. in. England, 49 

became commoners, while their title to nobility, as well 
as their estates, went to the eldest sons only. 

England possessed a numerous and powerful middle 
class, and it was not, as in France, con- 
fined to the towns. Landowners and yeo- JJEj^ 
men in the country belonged to it, as well as 
the citizens and merchants. 

And whilst all classes, including the nobility, had been 
subjected to the central government, they had none of 
them been" crushed and humbled. The 

' , t , . The Crown 

Crown had not become absolute, as m also subject to 
France. It, too, was subject to the laws of * e aws ' 
the land. 

The central power, or government, consisted of — 
(1) the King, (2) the House of Lords, in which the 
nobility had seats ; and (3) the House of Commons, where 
the representatives of the free landholders, and of the 
free citizens or burgesses, sat side by side. m 

, J The govern- 

No law could be passed without the concur- ment a consti- 

rence of the Crown and both Houses of Par- monarchy. 
liament. And the laws so passed were bind- 
ing alike on king, nobility, and commoners, i. <?., on the 
whole nation. Nor could the Crown levy taxes without 
the consent of Parliament. The government of Eng- 
land was a constitutional monarchy, and had long 
been so. 

There was, however, still one class of people who were 
not altogether blended into the nation — the ecclesiastics 
or clergy. Bishops and abbots, because they were great 
landholders and peers of the realm, had seats 
in the House of Lords, just as in Germany 
the ecclesiastical princes were Electors as 
well as the lay princes. In this sense they were Eng- 
lishmen. But the clergy in the main owed allegiance to 
E 



The ecclesias? 
tics. 



50 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

„ , Rome, and in spite of the Constitutions of 

Ecclesiastics .„ , . . . . : , 

not altogether Clarendon, were still ruled by ecclesiastical 
ng is men. j aw ^^ ecclesiastical courts, and resented 
civil interference. So they were subjects of the great 
Roman ecclesiastical empire rather than of England. 
Their allegiance was at least divided between the Pope 
and the king, and often they were really foreigners. The 
Pope at the same time drew large revenues 
revenues fronT from England as well as the king. The ec- 
clesiastical power was more under control, 
and had been for long more restrained by law in Eng- 
land than anywhere else ; but still the fact was that Rome 
had ecclesiastical sway over England. And in England, 
as elsewhere, the clergy and monks had got a large part 
of the land into their hands — probably about one-third 
of the land of England belonged to them, as well as 
tithes from the whole. 

The fact that there was one law of the land made by 
King and Parliament, and ruling all classes in the realm 
(except the clergy), had, more than anything 
had goTfree ^ e ^ se » helped the peasantry to rise out of 
SStude 31 f eu( ial servitude. There was no peasantry 
in Europe (except the Swiss) which had al- 
ready so completely got out of it as the English. 

It early became the law of the land in England that 
the services of the peasant could not be increased by the 
lord. What they had been by long custom they must 
not exceed. Then, by the influence of commerce, mo- 
ney payments were early substituted for labor service. 
So that people became used to money rents for land and 
money wages for labour. The population of England had 
increased very rapidly up to the fourteenth century. It 
was then nearly twice what it was afterwards, because 
the Black Death in 1349 swept away half of it in a few 



ch. in. England. 51 

months. This of course made labour scarce. In spite 
of all that the lords could do, and in spite even of Acts 
of Parliament passed to prevent it, there was a great rise 
in wages. 

Under the feudal law the feudal tenants might not 
leave their land. But now more and more they went to 
the towns, where they could earn higher wages than by 
tilling the land. There was of course a struggle to pre- 
vent it, but aided by the towns, the process went on. 
The feudal lords tried to enforce the old services, which 
had become so much more valuable since the Black 
Death. The more they did, the more their tenants 
deserted the land and went to the towns. The peasantry 
kept up a kind of strike, which came to a climax in the 
rebellion under Wat Tyler in 1381. They were so far 
successful that fixed money payments became general 
instead of services, and by the time of Henry VII. feudal 
servitude or villenage was at an end in England. 

Quite a new state of things had grown up. Owing to 
the growth of the woollen manufactures, and the demand 
for wool, sheep-farming had very much in- -_, 

r ° ■* The present 

creased. Instead of a lot of little peasants' condition of the 
holdings, the large farms of the wealthy peasan ry- 
sheep-owners often covered the country side. The 
masses of the people in England were more and more 
becoming a free people working for wages, while such 
tenants as remained on the land paid fixed money rents 
instead of services, and instead of being tied to the land 
were ejected from their holdings if they could not pay 
their rents. No doubt the masses of the people in Eng- 
land had their hardships to endure. They had suffered 
during the civil war of the Roses from anarchy and law- 
lessness and the ravages of armies. Soldiers disbanded 
after foreign wars disturbed the country. Small tenants 



52 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

found it hard to compete with larger ones, and on failure 
to pay their rents lost their farms very often. The num- 
ber of ejections from the land added of course to the idle 
vagrant population. Robbery was thereby increased, 
„ ... and as both thieves and vagabonds were 

Freedom did ° 

notneces- hung, sometimes twenty might be seen 
tw better hanging from a single gibbet. All this 
off - showed that there were evils at work — 

many things needing reform — but the English pea- 
m , , , santry had earned by their past struggles 

They had no J J . r ot> 

share in the this great advantage : instead of being 
butXe™ 6111 ' servile tenants of feudal lords, they were 
Jo aS re?ent nS free subjects, protected by the lav/ of the 
their getting land, though freedom did not necessarily 
make them better off, but often the con- 
trary. They had indeed as yet no share in making the 
laws, but there was nothing in their blood or in the law 
of England to prevent their rising by industry and thrift 
into owners of land, and as such claiming a voice in the 
government of their country. 

Such was England when, after the wars of the Roses, 
Henry VII. conquered at the Battle of Bosworth, and 
ascended the throne in 1485. 

Henry VII. was born an orphan, a few months after 
the death of his father, Edmund Tudor, Earl of Rich- 
Hen VII mon <l. He was an exile in Brittany while 
the civil wars were raging in England. He 
was twenty-six when the young princes were murdered, 
and Richard III. usurped the throne. At once, under 
the advice of Morton, Bishop of Ely, an attempt was 
A Welshman ma ^ e to dethrone in his favour the tyrant 
and landed ' Richard III. He was only twenty-eight 
when, after landing at Milford Haven, and 
winning at the Battle of Bosworth, he was proclaimed 



CH. in. England. 53 

king. His family (the Tudors) were Welsh, and so he 
had wisely landed in Wales. Belonging himself to the 
Lancastrian house, and in order to conciliate the York- 
ists, he had taken an oath to marry, and afterwards 
married, Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV., 
thereby in a way uniting the blood of the The throne 
two rival factions. He was received with precarious, 
acclamation in London, and ascended a precarious 
throne. It is well to note how precarious it was. The 
four previous kings had all been violently dethroned — 
Henry VI. imprisoned and murdered, Edward IV. de- 
posed and exiled, Edward V. murdered, Richard III. 
slain in the Battle of Bosworth. 

Henry VII. himself was a usurper, and, though he 
was king by Act of Parliament, there were 0ther 
other claimants to the throne. Two of them, claimants - 
generally thought to be impostors, invaded England, and 
tried to seize upon his throne. 

The first of these, Lambert Simnel, called Lambert 
himself Edward, Earl of Warwick, and was Simnel - 
supported by the Yorkist nobility, but defeated at the 
battle of Stoke in 1487. 

The other, Perkin Warbeck, professed to be the Duke 
of York, who with his brother, Edward V., was supposed 
to have been murdered by Richard III. He p erk;n War- 
was supported by Edward IV. 's sister, the beck - 
Duchess of Burgundy, by the kings of France and 
Scotland, who were continually plotting against Hemy 
VII., and every now and then, when it suited his pur- 
pose, by Ferdinand of Spain. Perkin Warbeck was 
taken prisoner in 1497, and beheaded in 1499. 

Henry VII. 's foreign policy was peace and Hen 1 , 

alliance with Spain. We have seen that the foreign 
foreign policy of Spain was alliance with 



54 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

England against France. Henry VII. wanted peace. 
This alone could give him a chance of establishing him- 
self firmly on his precarious throne. To get peace he 
allied himself with Spain. While both were infants the 
Prince of Wales was betrothed to the Princess of Spain, 
Catherine of Arragon. Ferdinand was a treacherous 
ally. He dragged Henry VII. into the war with France 
which ended in the annexation of Brittany to France. 
And when it suited his purpose he threat- 
with r c?ther- ene( i to dethrone Henry, and even offered 
A^agon. Catherine of Arragon to the King of Scot- 

land. At length, as years passed, the mar- 
riage of Prince Arthur to Catherine took place ; but 
Prince Arthur soon after died. Then came negotiations 
for Catherine's marriage with Prince Henry (Henry 
VIII.), and on the death of his queen Henry VII. of- 
fered to marry his late son's widow himself! At length, 
in 1503, the contract for the marriage with the Prince 
Henry was signed, but as Henry was not yet of age it 
could be set aside if any other alliance suited him better. 

It is well to mark how these royal marriages were 
merely a part of the foreign policy of princes, and that 
from the first there had been great lack of good faith as 
regards this marriage, on which so much of England's 
future history was to turn. 

Henry VII. 's domestic policy was in the main wise. 
Hen vii 's *^ n S anc * usur P er as he was, he yet took 
domestic great pains to conform to the law of the 

land. Instead of trying to make the crown 
absolute, he remembered he was a constitutional mon- 
arch, and could levy no taxes without consent of Par- 
liament. 

Still, though a constitutional monarchy, the govern- 
ment of England in Tudor times was not conducted just 



ch. in. England. 55 

as it is now. Parliament did not sit every __ 

His position 

year as it does now. Nor were there as as regards 

j ,. r Parliament. 

now a prime minister and a cabinet of min- 
isters representing the majority in Parliament, responsi- 
ble to Parliament, remaining in office only so long as 
they can command a majority in Parliament, and giving 
place to another prime minister and cabinet as soon as 
they find themselves in a minority. The king had the 
reins of government much more in his own hands than 
the Crown has now. He chose his own ministers who 
were responsible to him alone. And as the regular annual 
revenues of the Crown were sufficient to pay for the 
ordinary expenses of government, and did not need 
voting by Parliament every year as they do now, it was 
only when he had a war on hand, or something extra- 
ordinary happened needing fresh taxes or laws, that it 
was needful for a Tudor king to call a Parliament. 

The chief minister of Henry VII. was Cardinal Mor- 
ton, a true Englishman, though an ecclesiastic. He was 
a man of large experience. He was in 

*> r His minister, 

middle life when Henry was born. He was Cardinal Mor- 
a privy councillor, and faithful adherent of 
Henry VI. Edward IV. had made him his Lord Chan- 
cellor, and his executor. Richard III. had thrown him 
into prison, but he had escaped in time to plan the enter- 
prise which proved successful at Bosworth Field, and to 
him Henry VII. owed his throne. 

Under the influence of Morton Henry VII. on the 
whole did what the weal of England required. 

With a strong hand he kept all classes subject to the 
laws of the land, quelled rebellion, and maintained in- 
ternal peace and order. He was avari- 0rdermain . 
cious, but even in his most hard and unjust tained. 
exactions he kept within the letter of the law. 



5 6 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

In order to keep the nobility in check he favoured the 
Middle classes growth and power of the middle classes— 
favoured. notably of the 'yeomen,' i. e. small land- 

holders, and tenant farmers. 

Thus he did much to conciliate the English nation 
after the long civil wars. He also paved the way for 
Paved the the union of England and Scotland by the 

way for the marriage of his daughter Mary to the king 

union of Eng- - . . ° J ° 

land and Scot- 01 bcots. Being himself a Welshman, he 
Iand ' reconciled the Welsh to English rule. After 

a struggle of 1,000 years they at length were satisfied 
with union with England. Under the Tudor dynasty 
~ ,, they ceased to feel themselves a conquered 

Finally con- J ^ 

ciliated the people, and though retaining their separate 
language, ceased to rebel from what they 
no longer considered a foreign yoke. 

To these claims of Henry VII. to English respect we 
must add that, though not sagacious enough to patronize 
And began Columbus, he did the next best thing in 
England's sending out afterwards Sebastian Cabot to 

colonial em- , . , . . _ 

pire. discover and claim for England a foothold 

across the ocean which proved the begin- 
ning of those extensions of England in America in 
which half the English people now dwell. Thus he was 
the founder of England's colonial empire. 

Of his later years we shall have to speak again. In 
the meantime it may help to fix some of these facts on 
our minds if we dwell a moment on his tomb. 

' His corpse ' (says the chronicler) ' was conveyed with 
' funeral pomp to Westminster, and there buried by the 

The tomb of ' £ ooc * < l ueen » ms w ^ e » m a sumptuous and 

Henry VII. ' solemn chapel, which he had not long 

'before caused to be builded.' He was 

buried in a vault just big enough for himself and his 



ch. iv. The Necessity for Reform. 5 7 

queen, under the pavement in the centre of that beauti- 
ful chapel which still bears his name, and in which, 
round this central tomb, so many Tudor and Stuart 
princes were afterwards laid. When Henry VII. 's vault 
was opened in 1689 there were found to be three coffins 
instead of two ! The third was discovered to be that of 
James I. To make room for it the wood had been 
stripped off the other two, leaving the inner lead coffins 
bare. The workmen engaged in this strange work were 
found to have quaintly scratched their names on the 
lead, with the date 1625. 

In that tomb of Henry VII. lie, therefore, not only 
the heirs of the two English contending factions of York 
and Lancaster, and of the traditions of Wales, but also 
the Scotch monarch who, thanks to the policy of his 
great-grandfather, Henry VII., ascended the English 
throne and became the first king of Great Britain. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE NEED OF REFORM AND DANGER OF REVOLUTION. 

{a) The Necessity for Reform. 

Now, after this review of the state of Christendom, it 
will be easy to see in what points it fell short of the 
demands of modern civilization and wherein therefore 
reform was needful. 

We said that the first point towards which modern 
civilization specially tended was this, viz., the formation 
of compact nations living peaceably side by side, respect- 
ing one another's rights and freedom. 



58 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

We have seen that the modern nations were fast 

j forming themselves — that England, France, 

Germany and Spain were already formed, but that Ita- 

unitecf ly and Germany were lagging far behind in 

nations. thig matter> 

But none of the nations were living peaceably side by 
side, and respecting one another's rights. They were at 
The lack of constant war, sometimes under the leader- 

peSeand^ 1 shi P of the Po P e » like a band of robbers, set- 
justice, ting upon Venice, or Naples, or Milan ; then 
quarrelling amongst themselves, and forming fresh 
leagues to drive one another out. Their foreign policy 
was aggressive and wofully wanting in good faith. This 
want of public peace and international morality was a 
crying evil. It disturbed commerce, and its worst re- 
sult was that it inflicted terrible hardships on the mass- 
es of the people. The voice of the French peasantry 
was clear upon this point. Here then was need for 
reform. 

The second great point aimed at by modern civiliza- 
tion was, that (looking within each nation) all classes of 
the people were to be alike citizens, for whose common 
weal the nation was to be governed, and who were ulti- 
mately to govern themselves. 

Not only as yet had the masses of the people no share 
in the government of the nations of which they formed so 
large a part, but also they were very far from being re- 
garded as free citizens, except in England, where in 
theory they were so, though perhaps not much so in prac- 
The fd t * ce " * n Germany especially, the peasantry 

of the Ger- were still in feudal serfdom, and feeling their 
santry e stlu thraldom more keenly than ever. Here, 
continued. again, was a necessity for reform. 

We have already seen that there was a necessity for 



ch. iv. The Necessity for Reform. 59 

reform in that ecclesiastical system of Rome Thg ecde _ 
which opposed the free growth of the modern siastical and 

, . ,. , . . scholastic 

nations, and in the scholastic system so systems 
intimately connected with it, which was op- J e e £ 
posed to free thought, science, and true 
religion, and prevented the diffusion of the benefits of 
knowledge and education among the masses of the people. 

Now the question for the new era was, whether the 
onward course of modern civilization was to 
be by a gradual timely reform in these things, tives preform or 
or whether, reform being refused or thwarted, revolutlon - 
it was to be by revolution. 

Recognizing the necessity there was for reform, we 
have now to see the danger there was of revolution ; how 
far and wide, in fact, the train was already laid, waiting 
only for the match to explode it. 

[b) The Train laid for Revolution. 
It will not seem strange, (1), that it was among the 
oppressed peasantry of Germany that the ^ L 

. „„,.,;: , The train was 

train was most effectually laid for revolu- laid among the 
tion; or, (2), that when attempts had been samry*. 11 pea 
made at revolution, they were aimed at the 
redress of both religious and political grievances. 

The ecclesiastical grievances of the peasantry were as 
practical and real as those involved in feudal serfdom. 
The peasant's bondage to the priests and 

i ,',',,',', Their ecclesi- 

monks was often even harder than the bond- astical as well 

age to his feudal lords. It was not only that grievances. 

he had tithes to pay, but after paying tithes, 

he still had to pay for everything he got from priests and 

church. That religion which should have been his help 

and comfort was become a system of extortion and 

fraud. 



6o State of Christeiidom. pt. t. 

These are the words of a contemporary writer (Juan 

de Valdez, the brother of the secretary of the Emperor 

Charles V.), himself a Catholic, and well ac- 

rary test!°" quainted with the condition of things in 

mony. Germany : ' I see that we can scarcely get 

* anything from Christ's ministers but for money ; at bap- 
' tism money, at bishoping money, at marriage money, 
I for confession money — no, not extreme unction without 
' money ! They will ring no bells without money, no 
' burial in the church without money ; so that it seemeth 
' that Paradise is shut up from them that have no money. 
'The rich is buried in the church, the poor in the church- 
■ yard. The rich man may marry with his nearest kin, 
'but the poor not so, albeit he be ready to die for love of 
' her. The rich may eat flesh in Lent, but the poor may 
' not, albeit fish perhaps be much dearer. The rich man 
' may readily get large indulgences, but the poor none, be- 
' cause he wanteth money to pay for them.' 

We must remember, too, how galling to the peasant 
was the payment of the large and small tithes. These 
words were written in England, but they will serve for 
all Europe : 

' They have their tenth part of all the corn, meadows, 

'pasture, grass, wood, colts, calves, lambs, pigs, geese, 

' and chickens. Over and beside the tenth 

Another testi- 
mony, 'part of every servant s wages, wool, milk, 

'honey, wax, cheese, and butter; yea, and 

'they look so narrowly after their profits that the poor 

'wife must be countable to them for every tenth egg, or 

* else she getteth not her rights at Easter, and shall be 
'taken as a heretic' 

Can we wonder that the peasants should rebel against 
this? and that in Germany, where both feudal and eccle- 
siastical oppression was so galling, they should rebel 



CHo iv. The train laid for Revolution. 61 

against both, and mix the two together in their minds, 
demanding in one breath both religious and political 
freedom ? Surely there was reason in it. 

As early as the fourteenth century the Swiss peasants 
in the Forest Cantons had rebelled and thrown off the 
yoke of their Austrian feudal lords, and when 
the latter joined in a common cause against beiiion of the 
them, the Swiss were victorious in the battle Swiss > J 3 15, 
of Morgarten, 131 5. The Swiss had formerly belonged 
to the German Empire, and had the Empire done justice 
between them and their lords, they would have been 
glad enough to remain free peasants of the Empire ; but 
as the Empire helped their lords instead of them, they 
threw off the yoke of the Empire. They were soon 
joined by other neighboring cantons, and their flag, with 
its white cross on a red ground, became the flag of a new 
nation, the Swiss confederacy, with its motto, ' Each for 
all, and all for each ' — a nation of free peasants, letting 
out their sons as soldiers to fight for pay, and, alas, not 
always on the side of freedom ! 

Between 1424 and 147 1 the peasants of the Rhsetian 
Alps did the same thing. Oppressed and insulted by 
their lords they burned their castles and and tlie pea . 
threw off their yoke, and thus was formed sants of the 

J Lrraubund, 

the Graubund, in imitation of the Swiss con- 1441-71- 
federacy, but separate from it. 

Referring to the map 'Serfdom and Rebellions against 
it* we mark these two Swiss republics on it as the region 
where rebellion had met with success. It was no doubt 
their mountains which helped the Swiss peasants to suc- 
cess and independence. Their battles were little Mara- 
thons. At Morgarten 1,300 Swiss won the day against 
10,000 Austrian troops. Their Alps were their protection. 

We mark next the region where the rebellion against 



62 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

Rome and the Empire, which followed in Bohemia upon 
the preaching of Wiclif and martyrdom of 
ful rebellion Huss, had been, after a long reign of terror, 
krdTand an d the Hussitewars (141 5-1436), quelled in 

Hussite blood. Hussite doctrines were indeed still 

wars, 141 5- 

1436. held by the people, and by the treaty of 

Basle in some sense tolerated ; but this, nev- 
ertheless, was the region where rebellion, springing out 
of the last era of light and progress, had been crushed 
to rise no more. 

Now we have got to mark where, in connexion with 
the new era, there were signs, as we have said, that a 
train was laid for a coming revolution. 

The John the Baptist of the movement was Hans Bo- 
keim, a drummer, who had appeared in 1476 in Franco- 
Threats of n ^ a » on tne Tauber, a branch of the Maine. 
Rebellion in j^e professed to be a prophet, to have had 

b ranconia in r A *• 

1476. visions of the Virgin Mary, and to be sent by 

her to proclaim that the Kingdom of God was at hand, 
that the yoke of bondage to lords spiritual and temporal 
was coming to an end, that under the new kingdom there 
were to be no taxes, tithes, or dues; all were to be 
brethren, and woods, and waters, and pastures were to be 
free to all men. A crowd of 40,000 pilgrims flocked to 
hear the prophet of the Tauber till the Bishops of Wurz- 
burg and Maintz interfered, dispersed the crowd and 
burned the prophet He was but a sign of the times — a 
voice crying in the wilderness ! But his cry was one 
which found a response in the hearts of the peasantry—, 
freedom from the yoke of their feudal and spiritual lords, 
and the restoration of those rights which in ancient day3 
had belonged to the community. This was the cry of 
the peasantry for many generations to come. 

The next was a much more formidable movement, viz n 



ch. iv. The train laid for Revolution. 63 

that named from the banner borne by the The ' Bund- 
peasantry, the Bundschuh, or peasant's clog. schul1 * 

While the peasants in the Rhaetian Alps were gradu- 
ally throwing off the yoke of the nobles and forming the 
Graubund, a struggle was going on between in Kempten, 
the neighbouring peasantry of Kempten (to J 49 2 - 
the east of Lake Constance) and their feudal lord, the 
Abbot of Kempten. It began in 1423, and came to an 
open rebellion in 1492. It was a rebellion against new 
demands not sanctioned by ancient custom, and though 
it was crushed, and ended in little good to the peasantry 
(many of whom fled into Switzerland), yet it is worthy 
of note because in it for the first time appears the banner 
of the Bundschuh. 

The next rising was in Elsass (Alsace), in 1493, the 
peasants finding allies in the burghers of the towns 
along the Rhine, who had their own grie- In Elsass 
vances. The Bundschuh was again their x 493- 
banner, and it was to Switzerland that their anxious eyes 
were turned for help. This movement also was prema- 
turely discovered and put down. 

Then, in 1501, other peasants, close neighbours to 
those of Kempten, caught the infection, and in 1502, 
again in Elsass, but this time further north, Both again in 
in the region about Speyer and the Neckar, x s°*-*- 
lower down the Rhine, nearer Franconia, the Bu?id- 
schuh was raised again. It numbered on its recruit 
rolls many thousands of peasants from the country 
round, along the Neckar and the Rhine. The wild 
notion was to rise in arms, to make themselves free, 
like the Swiss, by the sword, to acknowledge no supe- 
rior but the Emperor, and all Germany was to join the 
League. They were to pay no taxes or dues, and com- 
mons, forests, and rivers were to be free to all. Here 



64 State of Christendom. pt. i. 

again they mixed up religion with their demands, and 
'Only what is just before God' was the motto on the 
banner of the Bundschuh. They, too, were betrayed, 
and in savage triumph the Emperor Maximilian ordered 
their property to be confiscated, their wives and children 
to be banished, and themselves to be quartered alive. 
It would have been suicide on the part of the nobles to 
fulfil orders so cruel on their own tenants. They would 
have emptied their estates of peasants, and so have lost 
their services, for the conspiracy was widely spread. 
Few, therefore, really fell victims to this cruel order of 
the Emperor. The ringleaders dispersed, fleeing some 
into Switzerland and some into the Black Forest. For 
ten years now there was silence. The Bundschuh ban- 
ner was furled, but only for a while. 

In 1 5 12 and 15 13, on the east side of the Rhine, in 
the Black Forest and the neighbouring districts of Wur- 
.. , ternberg, the movement was again on foot 

About the ° *> 

Black Forest on a still larger scale. It had found a leader 
undTrjoss in 7 0SS -Fritz. A soldier, with command- 
Fntz. i n g presence, and great natural eloquence, 

used to battle, hardship, and above all, patience, he 
bided his time. He was one of the fugitives who had 
escaped being ' quartered.' He hid himself for years 
in places where he was unknown, but never despaired. 
At length, in 15 12 he returned to his own land, settled 
near Freiburg, and began to draw together again the 
broken threads of the Peasants' league. He got him- 
self appointed forester under a neighbouring lord, talked 
to the peasants in the fields, or at inns and fairs, and 
held secret meetings at a lonely place among the forests 
in the dusk of evening. There he talked of the pea- 
sants' burdens, of the wealth of their ecclesiastical op- 
pressors, of the injustice of their blood being spilled in 



ch. iv. The train laid for Revolution. 65 

the quarrels of lords and princes, how they were robbed 
of the' wild game of the forest, and the fish in the rivers, 
which in the sight of God were free, like the air and the 
sun, to all men, how they ought to have no masters but 
God, the Pope, and the Emperor. Lastly, he talked to 
them of the Bundschuh. They went to consult their 
priest, but Joss had talked over the priest to his side, 
and he encouraged the movement. Then they framed 
their articles, and Joss defended them out of the Bible. 
They were first to seek the sanction and aid of the Em- 
peror, and if he refused to help them then they would 
turn to the Swiss. 

There was a company of licensed beggars who 
tramped about the country with their wallets, begging 
alms wherever they went — a sort of guild, with elected 
captains. This guild Joss took into his confidence. 
They were his spies, and through them he knew what 
watches were kept at city gates, and through them he 
kept the various ends of the conspiracy going. His plans 
were now all laid. He wanted nothing but the Bundschuh 
banner. He got some silk and made a banner — blue, 
with a white cross upon it. The white cross was the 
Swiss emblem. Some of his followers would have pre- 
ferred the eagle of the Empire. But how was the Bund- 
schuh to be added ? What painter could be found who 
would keep the secret ? Twice he tried and was disap- 
pointed, and all but betrayed. At length, far away on 
the banks of the Neckar, he found a painter, who 
painted upon it the Virgin Mary and St. John, the Pope 
and the Emperor, a peasant kneeling before the cross, a 
Bundschuh, and under it the motto ' O Lord, help the 
righteous.' He returned with it under his clothes, but 
ere he reached home the secret was out. Again the 
League was betrayed. A few days more and the ban- 



66 State of Christendom. pt. i« 

ner would have been unfurled. Thousands of peasants 
were ready to march, but now all was over, the whole 
thing was out, and Joss Fritz, with the banner under his 
clothes, had to fly for his life to Switzerland. Every- 
thing was lost but his own resolution. Those conspira-. 
tors who were seized were put to torture, hung, be- 
headed, and some of them quartered alive. 

But Joss Fritz was not disheartened. He returned 
after a while to the Black Forest, went about his secret 
errands, and again bided his time. 

In 1 5 14 the peasantry of the Duke Ulrich of Wurtem- 
berg rose to resist the tyranny of their lord, who had 
ground them down with taxes to pay for 
Wdrtembeig ^ s reckless luxury and expensive court. 
and the -phe same year, in the valleys of the Aus- 

Aips. trian Alps, in Carinthia, Styria, and Crain, 

similar risings of the peasantry took place, all of them 
ending in the triumph of the nobles. 

To defend themselves against such risings a league 
had been formed among the nobles of the whole district 
The Swabian to the north of Switzerland, called the Swa- 
agaSthe °^ an League, and a proclamation was issued 
peasants. \Jaal * Since in the land of Swabia, and all 

'over the Empire, among the vassals and poor people 
' disturbances and insurrections are taking place, with 
' setting up of the standard of the Bundschuh and other 
' ensigns against the authority of their natural lords and 
' rulers, with a view to the destruction of the nobles and 
' all honourable persons, the noble and knightly orders 
' have therefore agreed, whatever shall happen, to sup- 

• port each other against every such attempt on the part 

* of the common man.' 

This brings forcibly into view again the fatal vice in 
the policy of feudal Germany — want of the consolidation 



CH. iv. The train laid for Revolution. 67 

of the German people into a compact nation. 
For here were the peasantry of Germany ap- wfdVtSe 
pealing helplessly to some higher power to lafdfo^ 5 
protect them from the oppression of their [JJ^JJ rev0 " 
feudal lords, conspiring for a general rebel- 
lion for lack of it, and debating whether on the flag of the 
Bundschuh they should pairt the eagle of the Empire or 
the white cross of the Swiss republic. Here on the 
other hand were the nobles and knightly orders con- 
spiring by the sheer force of their combined swords to 
crush these ' attempts on the part of the common man.' 
The crying need of both was for a German nation — a 
commonwealth — with a strong central power or govern- 
ment to hold the sword of justice between them, settling 
their disputes by the law of the land for their common 
weal. For lack of this there was rebellion and bloodshed. 
These risings of the peasantry were crushed for a while, 
but Joss Fritz was only biding his time, and meanwhile 
let us bear in mind where, how far and wide over Cen- 
tral Europe, the train was laid, waiting only for the 
match to ignite it. 

It is well to look once more on the map of serfdom, to 
fix these revolutionary localities in our mind, and before 
we pass away from them to mark how they lie, not in 
the region of darkest shadow, where serfdom was most 
complete — wheie a conquered Slavonian peasantry were 
in bondage too complete for rebellion — nor in the region 
of the crushed Hussite rebellions ; but in those regions 
next to the countries where serfdom had obtained least 
hold, and had passed away : above all, in m . , . , 

r J ' The tram laid 

those mountain regions where the traditions out where serf- 

of ancient freedom had lived the longest, woretTbut* '* 

where the spirit of the people was least sub- J^S^-J 

dued, and where the close neighbourhood of si s^t. 



68 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

their fellow mountaineers of Switzerland kept an exam- 
ple of successful rebellion ever before their eyes. We 
may see in this way most clearly how these peasants' 
rebellions were not isolated phenomena, but parts of a 
great onward movement beginning centuries back, 
which had already swept over England and France, and 
freed the peasants there, and now, in this era, had Ger- 
many to grapple with. Whether it was destined to be 
at once successful or not we shall see in this history, but 
we may be sure it was destined to conquer some day, 
because we cannot fail to recognize in it one of the waves 
of the advancing tide of modern civilization. 



PART II. 

THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION. 



CHAPTER I. 

REVIVAL OF LEARNING AND REFORM AT FLORENCE. 

(a) The Revivers of Learning at Florence. 
The story we have now to tell begins at Florence. 
Florence, as we have already noted, was a republic, but 
The Republic differing from other Italian republics in this : 

of Florence. that wMe in others the nobles held p 0wer , 

here in Florence, for some generations, the nobles had 
been dethroned. The people had got the rule into their 
own hands ; and so far had they carried their distrust 
of the nobles, that no noble could hold office in the city 
unless he first enrolled himself as a simple citizen. Flor- 
ence had long been a great commercial city, and the pub- 
lic spirit of her citizens had helped to make her prosper- 



ch. I. Revival and Reform at Florence. 69 

ous. Never had she been more prosperous than in the 
early days of her democracy. But every now and then 
there were troubled times ; and in such times, more than 
once or twice, a dictator had been chosen. Sometimes 
even a foreign prince had been made dicta- „ . , 

, -, r » , , Power in the 

tor for a stated number of years. At length hands of the 
power had fallen into the hands of the 
wealthier families of citizens, and the chief of these was 
the family of the Medici. 

Cosmo de' Medici was for many years dictator. His 
great wealth, gained by commerce, placed him in the 
position of a merchant prince. His virtues, Cosmo, 
and patronage of learned men and the arts, I 3 8 9" I 464- 
made him popular ; and his popularity paved the way 
for the proud position held by his grandson, ' Lorenzo 
the Magnificent.' 

Lorenzo de' Medici (of whose times we are to speak) 
had followed in Cosmo's footsteps, and had got into his 
single hand the reins of the state. He had T 

Lorenzo de 

set aside the double council of elected citi- Medici, 
zens, and now ruled through a council of I44 I492 ' 
seventy men chosen by himself. His court was the 
most brilliant and polished of his time, but in the back- 
ground of his magnificence there was always this dark 
shadow — he held his high place at the expense of the 
liberties of the people of Florence. 

There was, however, much in his rule to natter the 
pride of the Florentines. 

Under the Medici, Florence had become the ' Modern 
Athens.' Their genius and wealth had filled it with 
pictures and statues, and made it the home j^^^ the 
of artists and sculptors. At this very mo- Modern 

, ■ , , , , . Athens. 

ment, m Lorenzo s palace and under his 
Datronage, was young Michael Angelo, ere long to be the 



70 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

greatest sculptor and one of the greatest painters of Italy. 
Michael Learning also, as well as art, had found a 

Angelo. home at Florence. The taking of Constan- 

tinople by the Turks having driven learned men into 
Italy, here at Florence, and elsewhere in Italy, -the 
philosophy of Plato was taught by men whose native 
The Platonic tongue was Greek. Cosmo de' Medici 
Academy. f oun d e d the ' Platonic Academy; and Fi- 
Ficino. cino, who was now at the head of it, had 

been trained up under his patronage. 

Politian (Poliziano), the most brilliant and polished 

Latin poet of the day, was always at the palace, directing 

the studies of Lorenzo's children, and ex- 

Pohtian, . . . 

1454-1494 ; changing Greek epigrams with learned ladies 
deiia M°ran- of the court. To this galaxy of distinguished 
d ?l a ' .„, m en had recently been added the beautiful 

I 4°3 _I 494- ' 

young prince, Pico delta Alirandola, regarded 
as the greatest linguist and most precocious genius of 
the age. At twenty-three he had challenged all the 
learned men of Europe to dispute with him at Rome ; 
and some of the opinions he advanced being charged 
with heresy, he had taken refuge at the court of Lorenzo, 
who gave him a villa near his own and Politian's, on the 
slope of the mountain overlooking the rich valley of the 
Arno and the domes and towers of Florence. What 
these three friends — Ficino the Platonist, Politian the 
poet, and Pico, their young and brilliant companion — ■ 
were to each other, let this little letter picture to us. 
Politian writes to Ficino, and asks him to come. 

' My little villa is very secluded, it being embosomed among 
woods, but in some directions it may be said to overlook all 
Florence. Here Pico often steals in upon me unexpectedly from 
his grove of oaks, and draws me away with him from my hiding- 
place to partake of one of his pleasant suppers — temperate, as you 



ch. I. Revival and Reform at Florence. 71 

know well, and brief, but always seasoned with delightful talk and 
wit. You will, perhaps, like better to come to me, where your fare 
will not be worse, and your wine better — for in that I may venture 
to vie even with Pico.' 

Add to this picture the brilliance of Lorenzo's court, 
and what a fascinating picture it is ! 

This little knot of men at Florence, and others in Italy, 
were at work at what is called the ' Revival of Learning.' 
These revivers of learning are often spoken The Revival 
of as ' the Humanists!' They were dig- of Learning, 
ging up again, and publishing, by means of the print- 
ing-press, the works of the old Greek and Latin writers, 
and they found in them something to their taste much 
more true and pure than the literature of the middle 
ages. After reading the pure Latin of the classical 
writers they were disgusted with the bad Latin of the 
monks ; after studying Plato they were disgusted with 
scholastic philosophy. Such was the rottenness of Rome 
that they found in the high aspirations of Plato after 
spiritual truth and immortality a religion which seemed 
to them purer than the grotesque form of „ . 

„ . . . Semi-pagan 

Christianity which Rome held out to them, tendencies 
They could natter the profligate Pope as all revival of 
but divine in such words as ' Sing unto Six- learnin s- 
tus a new song,' but in their hearts some of them scoffed, 
and doubted whether Christianity be true and whether 
there is a life after death for mankind. 

(0) The great Florentine Reformer, Girolamo 
Savonarola. 
These were the revivers of learning. But suddenly 
there arose amongst them quite another kind of man — a 
religious Reformer. He came like a shell _. , 

•l • 1 • -i • 1 • Girolamo Sa- 

in the midst of tinder, and it burst m the vonaroia, 145* 

midst of the Platonic Academy. The name ~ 149 ' 



72 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

of this Florentine Reformer was Girolamo Savonarola. 
He too was a learned man, meant by his father to be a 
doctor, but being of a religious turn of mind he had 
chosen to become a monk. Finding from study of the 
Becomes a re Scriptures how much both the Church and 
ligious re- the world needed reform, he became a Re- 

former. In i486 he commenced preaching 
against the vices of popes, cardinals, priests and monks, 
the tyranny of princes, and the bad morals of the peo- 
ple, calling loudly for repentance and reformation. In 
1487 he preached at Reggio. There young Pico heard 
him, and, taken by his eloquence, invited him to Flor- 
ence. In 1490 he came to the convent of St. Mark, 
which was under the patronage of the Medici. Crowds 
came to hear him; shopkeepers shut up their shops 

Made prior of while he was P reacnin g- He became the 
St Mark at idol of the people. In 1491 he was made 
Prior of San Marco, and when asked to do 
customary homage to the patron for this high appoint- 
ment he refused, saying ' he owed it to God, and not to 
Lorenzo de' Medici ! * 

Innocent VIII. had now succeed Sixtus IV. as Pope, 
and his natural son had married Lorenzo's daughter. 
The Pope in return had made Lorenzo's son John (after- 
wards Leo X.), a boy of thirteen, a cardinal ! When 
Savonarola thundered against ecclesiastical scandals and 
the vices of the Pope, Lorenzo naturally did not like it. 
He sent messages to the preacher, exhorting him to use 
discretion. ' Entreat him,' replied the Reformer, ' in my 
name, to repent of his errors, for calamities from on high 
impend over him and his family.' The bold Reformer 
Stirs up in the went on with his preaching, denouncing judg- 
spi°nt e of reform ments upon Italy and Rome. A marked im- 
and freedom, pression was soon visible in the morals of the 



CH. I. Revival and Reform at Florence. 73 

people of Florence. More and more he became their 
natural leader. Lorenzo tried to keep himself popular by- 
fetes and magnificent festivals. But gradually influen- 
tial citizens, who still longed for the old republic and 
ancient liberty, attached themselves to Savonarola. In 

1492 Lorenzo de" Medici died. The Re- Death of 
former had been sent for, and was with him Lorenzo and 
at his death. It was rumoured that he demanded of the 
dying man, as a condition of absolution, that he should 
restore to Florence her ancient liberties. T 

rr-i ■ t tt-ttt t i i • Innocent VIII. 

This year Innocent VIII. too died; and m 

1493 the wicked reign of Alexander VI. and his son 
Caesar Borgia began. While they were plotting to bring 
over Charles VIII. of France to scourge Italy, Savona- 
rola mixed up with his denunciations against the evils 
of the times prophecies of impending woes upon Flor- 
ence. Then came the armies of France ; The French 
friendly relations between the French and TheMedici 
the Florentines ; the expulsion of the Medici, ^ubnc're™ 6 
by their aid, from Florence ; the formation stored. 

of a republic, under the advice of Savonarola. He de- 
clined to hold any office, but his spirit ruled supreme. 
Convents were reformed, and the study of the Bible in 
the original language made a part of the Savonarola's 
duty of the monks. Schools for the educa- reforms - 
tion of the children of the people were founded ; and 
Savonarola went on with his preaching, denouncing the 
wickedness of the Church and demanding reform. 

In 1495 Pope Alexander VI. thought it was time to 
stop so dangerous a preacher. He cited him to Rome, 
but the people would not let him go. He offered to make 
him a cardinal as the price of his loyalty to Rome, 
but he publicly replied that the only red hat to which he 
aspired was one red in the blood of his own martyrdom. 



74 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

Had Savonarola died in 1495, his name would have 
gone down to posterity as that of a reformer singularly- 
zealous, noble, patriotic, judicious, and practical in his 
aims and conduct. But men are not perfect, 
fanatical. * The zealous brain is apt to take fire, and en- 
thusiasm is apt to become fanatical. So it 
was with Savonarola. Both he and the people gave way 
to excitement. When the time of Carnival came, they 
dragged their trinkets, pictures, immoral books, vanities 
of all kinds, into the public square, and made a great 
bonfire of them. The excitement of the people reacted 
on the prophet who had raised it. In his later years (he 
lived only to the age of forty-seven), he prophesied more 
wildly than ever, thought he saw visions, and did fanati- 
cal things which marked a brain fevered and unbalanced. 
Be it so ; we are not therefore to forget to pay homage to 
the man who, even in these later years, was bold enough 
to put the Borgian Pope to well-merited shame, and to 
denounce his vices, regardless alike of his bribes or his 
threats. That the Pope was powerful enough at length 
to put him to silence by imprisonment, to make him con- 
fess his heresies by torture, and on his return to them 
when the torture was removed, to silence him for ever by 
a cruel death, did but cast the halo of martyrdom around 
his heroism and make his name immortal. 

Is martyred by 

order of the He was strangled and burned at Florence 
Alexander vi. ^Y order of the Pope in 1498 — by order of that 
Pope who had himself committed murder 
and sacrilege and unheard-of-crimes, and who five years 
after died of the poison prepared, as was said, for another ! 

(c) Savonarola 's Influence on the Revivers of Learning. 

Lorenzo had died in 1492, and Savonarola, as we have 
said, was present at his death-bed. Pico, who had in* 



ch. i. Revival and Reform at Florence. 75 

vited him to Florence, became a devout dis- „. 

His influence 

ciple of Savonarola, and after three years of over Pico, 
pure and childlike piety, remarkably free Ficinc.* 1 ' an 
from fanaticism, died in 1495. Just as Charles 
VIII. was entering Florence, Pico was buried in the 
robes of Savonarola's order and in the church of St. 
Mark. Politian died in the same year ; he, too, desired 
to be buried in the robes of Savonarola's order. Ficino 
was carried away by the preaching of the Reformer for a 
while, but was disgusted with the fanaticism of his later 
years. He died a Platonist, hardly sure whether Chris- 
tianity be true or not, and this characteristic story is told 
about his death. He and a friend made a solemn bar- 
gain with each other that whichever died first should, if 
possible, appear to the other and tell him whether indeed 
there be a life after death. Ficino died first, and is said 
1o have appeared to his friend, exclaiming, ' Oh ! Michael ! 
Michael! it is all true!' Whether the story be true or 
not, it shows exactly the state of mind the Neo-Platonist 
philosophers were in. 

(d) Niccolo Machiavelli. 

For some time after Savonarola's death Florence was 

governed by a Council of Ten, by whom was chosen as 

Secretary of State one of the most remark- „. , , 

. , ,. . . __. _ _ _ _ . __. Niccolo Ma- 

able men of the time, A/iccolo Machiavelli, chiavelli 

the historian from whose writings we have I46 9~ I52 7- 
several times quoted. He was, perhaps, the keenest 
diplomatist that ever lived. Schooled in the lying poli- 
tics of Italy, while Caesar Borgia and Alexander VI. 
were plotting and counter-plotting with all the States of 
Italy and Europe, he conducted the foreign diplomacy 
of the Republic of Florence till 1512, when under Julius 
U the French were driven out of Italy and the sons of 



76 TJie Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

Lorenzo de' Medici re-established in power. The Flo- 
rentines then lost their freedom of self-government for 
ever, and Machiavelli found himself an exile. In the 
retirement of a hidden country life he wrote his great 
•The Prince' wor k, ' The Prince.' Its object was to win 
a way back for its author to political life by 
convincing the Medici that though he had served under 
their enemies, he could do them service if they em- 
ployed him. It answered its purpose. Written in a 
wicked, lying age, ' The Prince ' reflected its vices. Its 
author made no pretence of a higher virtue than Borgias 
and Medici would appreciate. He did not scruple to 
advocate lying whenever it would pay ; force and fraud 
whenever it would succeed ; tyranny, if needful to keep 
a tyrant on his throne ; murder and bloodshed as a 
means of obtaining an end. This was what professedly 
Christian popes had been doing of late. Machiavelli by 
putting these maxims into a scientific form in 'The 
Prince ' did but give them a sort of personality. He be- 
came, as it were, the demon of politics, and the unchris- 
tian policy of the times became known to after ages as 
'Machiavellian.' 



CHAPTER II. 

THE OXFORD REFORMERS. 



{a) The Spirit of Revival of Learning and Reform is 
carried from Italy to Oxford. 

There were, as we have seen, two distinct movements 
at Florence in favour (1^ of the Revival of Learning, 
and (2) of Religious Reform. The distinction and also 
the connexion between these movements must be marked 
with care. 



CH. ii. The Oxford Reformers. 77 

The revival of the old classical Latin and Dis> tinction 

and con- 
Greek authors, by making men prefer Plato nexion be- 
to the schoolmen dealt a blow at the scho- ^vaTof e 
lastic system, and even tended towards a ReE5s and 
rejection of Christianity. reform. 

The spirit of religious reform was, on the other hand, 
a revival of earnest Christian feeling against the scandals 
of the Church and the irreligion of the age. It was in 
some sense caused by the revival of learning, for 
amongst the ancient literature which was revived were 
the Scriptures and the works of the early Church fathers ; 
and the study of these in their original Ian- „ , 

J b Both against 

guages opened men s minds to the need of the Scholas- 
reform. It also set them against the scho- 
lastic theology, and so it came to pass that the spirit of 
religious reform in its turn dealt a blow against the 
scholastic system. 

When the spirit which sought the revival of learning 
joined itself with that of religious reform, it produced 
reformers who aimed at freeing men's minds from the 
bonds of the scholastic system, at setting up Christ and 
his apostles instead of the schoolmen as the exponents 
of what Christianity really is, and lastly at making real 
Christianity and its golden rule the guide for men and 
nations, and so the basis of the civilization of the 
future. 

So to some extent it had been in Italy. The revival 
of learning had produced, not only the Platonic Academy, 
but also the great Florentine Reformer ; and Savonarola, 
with his fiery religious zeal, had been more than a match 
for the pagan tendencies of the Platonic Academy. Pico 
especially, and in part Ficino, had united religious feel- 
ings with a love of the Platonic philosophy. Savonarola 
himself had united a love of letters and zeal for education 



78 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

The move- w i tn ^is spirit of religious reform. But the 
ment crushed movement at Florence was now thoroughly 
crushed. We must look elsewhere for its 
further development till it becomes a power all over 
Europe. 

As in the fourteenth century the movement begun by 
Wiclif in England was carried into Bohemia by the inter- 
Revivers at change of students between the Universities 
Oxford. Q f Oxford and Prague, so this movement, 

begun in Italy, was soon carried by students from Flo- 
rence to Oxford, and from thence it took a fresh start. 

During the lifetime of Lorenzo de' Medici several 
Oxford students, amongst whom were Grocyn and 
Groc n and Linacre, went to complete their studies in 
Linacrego Italy. Linacre was made tutor or fellow- 
retum to student of Lorenzo's own children (one of 

Oxford. whom was afterwards Pope Leo X.). They 

returned to Oxford to revive there the study of the Greek 
language and literature. Linacre afterwards became tu- 
tor to Arthur Prince of Wales, and physician to Henry VII. 

Another Oxford student — John Colet — went to Italy 
after Lorenzo's death and the French invasion of Italy, 
John Colet and while Savonarola was virtually head of 
does the the Republic at Florence, also while the 

same. , . . , 

Colet unites scandals oi Rome s worst Pope, Alexander 
the new 1 ° VI., and Caesar Borgia, were in everyone's 
re!3o n u g sre- d mouth - He caught the spirit, not only of 
form. the revival of learning, but also of religious 

reform, and, combining the two, became on 
his return to Oxford the beginner of a movement at Ox* 
ford which was to influence Europe. 

[b] John Colet, Erasmus, and Thomas More. 
John Colet was son of a lord mayor of London, and 



CH. II. The Oxford Reformers. 79 

likely to succeed to his father's fortune. His earnest 
religious spirit made him wish to enter the Church. In 
Italy he studied the writings of Pico and Ficino and 
Plato, and above all the Eible, and returned to Oxford 
full of zeal for the new learning and for reform. 

He at once began to lecture at Oxford on St. Paul's 
Epistles, trying to find out what they meant in the same 
common sense way that men would use to understand 
letters written by a living man to his friends ; Lectures on 
not asking what the learned schoolmen had |t. Paul's 

° , . Epistles at 

decided that they meant, but giving the Oxford. 
schoolmen the go by (quoting Plato and Pico and Ficino 
more often than them), and so giving the Epistles a life- 
like power, interest, and freshness quite new to his 
hearers. By so doing he hoped to set men's minds free 
from the scholastic system, to make them inquire into 
facts for themselves, and drink in at first hand the teach- 
ings of the Apostle. 

For generations men had become monks and clergy- 
men without even reading the New Testament. Colet 
found theological students poring over the books of the 
schoolmen. His lectures were the beginning of -a. work 
which went on till it quite revolutionized the Attacl-s the 
theological teaching of the University. For- schoolmen, 
ty years after, people found the books of the schoolmen 
set aside as useless, and their torn leaves strung up by 
the corner as waste paper. 

Colet had seen in Italy how much the ecclesiastical as 
well as the scholastic system needed reform ; and so in 
his lectures at Oxford he zealously urged the He urges 
necessity of a reform in the morals of the a ' so * e ? eed 

J of ecclesi- 

clergy. He urged that it was ecclesiastical astical re- 
scandals and the wicked worldly living of 
the clergy, the way they mixed themselves up with poli 



80 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

tics, and strove after power and money and pleasure, 
which set men against the Church. 'Whereas,' he said, 
' if the clergy lived in the love of God and their neigh- 
' bours, how soon would then true piety, religion, charity, 
'goodness towards men, simplicity, patience, tolerance 
*of evil, conquer evil with good! How would it stir up 
'the minds of men everywhere to think well of the 
1 Church of Christ.' 

He had seen how wicked the Popes and cardinals of 
Rome were ; and so now, at Oxford, he burst out into 
hot words, written, as he said, 'with grief and tears,' 
against ecclesiastical wickedness in high places. He 
spoke of the Popes as ' wickedly distilling poison, to the 
' destruction of the Church.' Unless there could be a 
reform of the clergy, from the Pope at the head down to 
the monks and the clergymen, he saw no chance of 
saving the Church. ' Oh, Jesu Christ, wash for us not 
'our feet only, but also our hands and our head! Other- 
'wise our disordered Church cannot be far from death." 

A man so earnest was sure to make disciples. Stu- 
dents burdened by scholastic arguments came to him, 
He attracts and gladly accepted his advice to ' keep to 
disciples the Bible and the Apostles' Creed, letting 

divines, if they like, dispute about the rest.' They fol- 
lowed him from his lectures to his chambers, and im- 
bibed his love for St. Paul ; and along with the new 
learning, he stirred up in them that real religion which 
consists in the love of God and one's neighbour, and 
gives men a new power and ruling motive in life. 

Two men especially so came within his influence as to 
join themselves with him in fellow-work ; and it was by 
and fellow- tneir means that it became, in a way in 
workers. which Colet alone never could have made 

it, a power all over Europe. 



ch. II. The Oxford Reformers. Si 

One of them was Thomas (afterwards Sir Thomas, 
and Lord Chancellor) More, a young man, ten years 
Colet's junior, but so earnest, so full of wit „,, 

. .... Thomas More. 

and genius, and withal so good-natured 
and fascinating, that those who knew him fell in love 
with him. He had caught at Oxford the love of the new 
learning which Grocyn and Linacre had brought from 
Italy ; and, as we shall see by-and-by, became a hearty 
fellow-worker with Colet. Rising by his talents to posts 
of high influence in the state, he became one of the most 
prominent figures in English history during this era. 

The other fellow-worker was the afterwards famous 
Erasmus. He was an orphan, and poor. Thrust, when a 
youth, into a monastery by dishonest guar- „ 

,. ,,,.'•■ r ■> ■ -, Erasmus. 

dians, who had tried to force him to become 
a monk in order to get his little stock of money, he 
rebelled when he came of age, left the monastery, and, 
in spite of poverty, earning his living by £ ar i y Hf e of 
giving lessons to private pupils, worked his Erasmus- 
way up to such learning as the University of Paris could 
give. Wanting to master Greek, and too poor to go to 
Italy, he came, at the invitation of an English nobleman, 
to learn it at Oxford. He was just turned thirty (the same 
age as Colet), but already hard study, bad lodging, and 
the harassing life of a poor student, driven about and ill- 
used as he had been, had ruined his health. His mental 
energy rose, however, above bodily weak- He comes to 
ness, and he came to Oxford, eager for work, Oxford. 
and perhaps for fame. He found the little Makes friends 
circle of Oxford students zealous for the new an d Thomas 
learning and those Greek studies on which his More ' 
own mind was bent. He became known at once to Colet, 
Grocyn, and Linacre, and fell in love with More. His 
own words will best describe what he thought of them. 



$2 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

'When' (he wrote in a letter) 'I listen to my friend 
1 Colet, it seems to me like listening to Plato himseif. In 
' Grocyn, who does not admire the wide range of his know- 
' ledge? What could be more searching, deep, and re- 
' fined than the judgment of Linacre? Whenever did 
1 nature mould a character more gentle, endearing, and 
' happy than Thomas More 1 s ? 

During the time he spent at Oxford, he had many 

talks and discussions with Colet. He had come to Ox 

ford full of the spirit of the revival of learning, but not 

yet hating the scholastic system as Colet did, 

Comes under * ° * 

Colet's infiu- nor ready at once to take to Colet s views on 
the need of reform. He had not yet got the 
religious earnestness which made Colet what he was, 
But Colet's fervour was infectious ; and before Erasmus 
left Oxford, he saw clearly what a great work Colet had 
begun. 

Colet urged him to stay at Oxford, and at once to join 
him in his work ; but Erasmus said he was not ready — 
he must first go to Italy to study Greek, as others had 
done. But, he said, ' When I feel that I have the need- 
ful firmness and strength, I will join you.' How effec- 
tually he did aid him afterwards we shall presently see. 

(e) The Oxford students are scattered till the accession 
of Henry VIII. ( 1 500-1 509) . 
During the remainder of the reign of Henry VII. 
_, , (nine years or thereabouts), the little band 

The three v / ; ' 

friends scat- of Oxford students was scattered. 

Erasmus left England in 1 500 for France, 

on his way for Italy ; but being robbed of his money by 

the custom-house officers at Dover, he was obliged by 

poverty to stay in France instead of going to Italy. 

Colet went on with his work at Oxford as earnestly as 



CH. ii. The Oxford Reformers. 83 

ever, till he was made Dean of St. Paul's, and removed 
to London. 

More worked his way up to the bar in London, be- 
came popular in the City, and very early in life went 
into Parliament. 

The last years of Henry VII. were marked by the 
discontent occasioned by the king's avarice. 

Tj- , -r^ , _ ,, Exactions of 

His two ministers, Empson and Dudley Empsonand 
tried all kinds of schemes to exact money r>udle > r - 
from the people without breaking the laws. 

' These two ravening wolves ' (wrote Hall the chroni- 
cler, who lived near enough to the time to feel some of 
the exasperation he described) ' had such a guard of false 
'perjured persons appertaining to them, which were by 
'their commandment empanelled on every quest, that the 
' king was sure to win, whoever lost. Learned men in the 
' law, when they were required of their advice, would say, 
' " To agree is the best counsel I can give you." By this 
'undue means these covetous persons filled the king's 
' coffers and enriched themselves. At this unreasonable 
' and extortionate doing noblemen grudged; mean men 
'kicked, poor men lamented ; preachers openly, at Paul's 
'Cross and other places, exclaimed, rebuked, and de- 
vested ; but yet they would never amend.' 

The robbing of Erasmus at the Dover custom-house 
was an instance of one of these legal robberies. Thomas 
More also suffered from the royal avarice. 
He was bold enough to speak and vote in offends 
Parliament against a subsidy which he Henr y VIL 
thought was more than the king ought to claim. Where- 
upon his father was fined on some legal but unjust ex- 
cuse, and he himself had to flee into retirement. He 
thought of going into a cloister, and becoming a monk ; 
but, under the influence of Colet, who about that time 



84 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

was made Dean of St. Paul's, and came to live in Lon- 
. , don, he married, and waited for better days. 

The circle , . . . 

of Oxford When Erasmus came to England again in 

formecUgain i5°5> ne found Colet, More, Grocyn, Lin- 
in London. acre> and L iu y ( anot h er Oxford student who 

had been to Italy), all living in London. They found 
him the necessary means for his journey to Italy, and 
again he left them, promising to return, and hoping then 
to join them in fellow -work. 

In 1509, while Erasmus was in Italy, Henry VII. died. 

(d) On the accession of Henry VIII. they commence 
their fellow-work (1509). 

The accession of Henry VIII. seemed to the Oxford 

students like the beginning of an Augustan age. The 

other sovereigns of Europe, Maximilian of 

accession of Germany, Louis XII. of France, and Ferdi- 

enry " nand of Spain, were old men, and, owing to 
their constant wars, poor. Henry VIII. was young and, 
thanks to his father's peaceful foreign policy and unjust 
exactions, rich. He was, as most young princes are, 
popular; every one hoped good things from him. The 
imprisonment and execution of Empson and Dudley re- 
lieved the people from fear of further exactions. He was 
handsome, fond of athletic sports, and, in the early 
years of his reign, it must be admitted, generous and 
open-handed. A musician, a scholar, and (however fond 
of pleasure) neglecting neither study nor business, of 
great energy having his eye everywhere and keeping the 
reins of government well in his hands, he seemed likely 
to make a great and popular king. 

By the little band of Oxford students his accession 
was hailed with the highest hopes. He was personally 
known to some of them, and known to be a friend of the 



CH. ii. The Oxford Reformers. 8* 

'new learning.' Colet (already Dean of 

r. t^ i, x , , The Oxford 

St. Pauls) was soon made court preacher, students in 
Thomas More, to the delight of the citizens Courtfavour - 
of London, was made under-sheriff, and a few years 
afterwards, such was the fondness of the king for him, 
that, much against his will, he was drawn into the court. 
Even the foreign scholar Erasmus was at once recalled 
from Rome and settled at Cambridge as Greek profes- 
sor. There seemed now to be an open door for Revival 
and Reform, and all in the sunshine of the young king's 
favour. 

(e) Erasmus writes his ' Praise of Folly ' ( 1 5 1 1 ) . 

Erasmus, having been to Italy, was now ready to join 
Colet heartily in fellow-work. On his way from Italy on 
horseback, he planned in his mind, and on his arrival 
in London, before going to Cambridge, he wrote in 
More's house, his 'Praise of Folly,' a satire in Latin on 
the follies of the age, which made his name famous 
among the scholars of Europe. 

He dressed up Folly in her cap and bells, and made 
her deliver an oration to her fellow-fools. 

Prominent amongst the fellow-fools were the scholastic 
theologians whom Colet had taught him to dislike. 
' Folly ' described them as men who were so _ . 

' . Satire on the 

proud that they could define everything, who scholastic 
knew all about things of which St. Paul was 
ignorant, could talk of science as though they had been 
consulted when the world was made, could give you the 
dimensions of heaven as though they had been there and 
measured it with plumb and line — men who professed 
universal knowledge, and yet had not time to read the 
Gospels or Epistles of St. Paul. 

Monks were described as shut out of the kingdom of 



$6 The Pi-otestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

heaven in spite of their cowls and their ha- 
bits, while wagoners and husbandmen were 
admitted. 
'Folly' claimed also among her votaries Popes who 
(as Julius II. was then doing), instead of 'leaving all,' 
like St. Peter, try to add to St. Peter's patri- 
mony, as they called it, fresh possessions 
by war, and turn law, religion, peace, and all human af- 
fairs upside down. 

This bold satire did much to open the eyes of men all 
over Europe to the need of reform, turned the ridicule 
of the world upon the scholastic theologians and monks, 
and as a natural consequence, raised against Erasmus 
the hatred of those whose follies he had so keenly sa- 
tirized. 

This little book written, he went to Cambridge to labour 
as Greek professor, and also at another great work of 
which we shall have to say more by-and-by — his edition 
of the New Testament. 



(/) Colet founds St. PauVs School. 

Colet, meanwhile, went on preaching from his pulpit 
at St. Paul's. On his father's death he came into posses- 
^ , 4 , , sion of his fortune, and nobly devoted it to 

Colet founds a J 

school of the the foundation of a public school by the 

new learning. . 

cathedral — in which boys, instead of being 
crammed in the scholastic learning, were to be trained 
in the new learning, and instead of being taught the bad 
Latin of the monks, were to be taught the pure Latin and 
Greek which the Oxford students had imported from 
Italy; and lastly, instead of being flogged and driven, 
were to be attracted and gently led into the paths of 
learning. 



ch. ii. The Oxford Reformers. 87 

Lilly was appointed schoolmaster. Erasmus and Lin- 
acre were set to work to write school-books, and finding 
that no one else seemed able to write a Latin Grammar 
simple and easy enough for beginners, Colet wrote one 
himself. In his preface he said he had aimed, for the 
love and zeal he had for his new school, at making his 
little book on the eight parts of speech as easy as he 
could, 'judging that nothing may be too soft nor too fa- 
miliar for little children, specially learning a tongue unto 
them all strange,' and asking them to 'lift up their little 
white hands ' for him, in return for his prayers for them. 
Compare with these gentle words the practice of the 
common run of schoolmasters described by Erasmus, 
who, too ignorant to teach their scholars properly, had 
to make up for it by flogging and scolding, defending 
their cruelty by the theory that it was the schoolmaster's 
business to subdue the spirits of his boys ! 

When it was noised abroad that in this new school of 
the Dean's, classical Latin and Greek were to be taught 
instead of the bad Latin of the monks, and that under the 
shadow of St. Paul's cathedral there was thus to be a 
school of the new learning, men of the old school of 
thought began to take alarm. More had 
jokingly told Colet that it would be so, for m aike S of men 
he said the school was like the wooden ^hooi° ld 
horse filled with armed Greeks for the de- 
struction of barbarian Troy; and so the men of the old 
school regarded it. In spite of the inscription on the 
building — 

Schola Catechizationis Puerorum in Christi 
Opt. Max. fide et bonis Uteris, 

- — one bishop denounced it openly as a 'temple of ido- 
latry,' and the Bishop of London began to contrive how 



88 The Protesta?it Revolution. pt. ii. 

to get Colet convicted of heresy, and so a stop put to his 
work. 

About this time there was a convocation, and the 
Archbishop of Canterbury gave Colet the duty of preach- 
ing to the assembled bishops and clergy the 

Colet's sermon • TT , , , 

on ecclesiasti- opening sermon. He took the opportunity 
cal reform. Q f ur gi n g ( j n t he strongest and most earnest 
manner, the necessity of a radical reform in the morals 
of the clergy. He told them to their face boldly thai 
the wicked worldly life of some of the bishops and clergy 
was far worse heresy than that of poor Lollards, twenty- 
three of whom the Bishop of London had just been com- 
pelling to abjure, and two of whom he had burned in 
Smithfield a few months before. 

No wonder the Bishop's anger was kindled still more 

against Colet. He and two other bishops of the old 

school joined in laying a charge of heresy 

charge 6 ^/ 01 " * against him before the Archbishop, but the 

heresy. latter wisely would not listen to the charge. 

So the cause of the new learning prospered during the 
early years of Henry VIII. 

[g] The Continental Wars of Henry VIII. 1311-1312. 

If we look back to the section on Italy, and the sum- 
mary there given of Papal and Continental politics, we 
shall see that it was in 1511 and 1512 that Pope Julius 
II. was bent upon uniting Spain, England, 

The Holy Al- * * J * T • 

liance against and Germany in a war against France. Louis 
France. -^j^ -^d g t possession of Milan, and was 

becoming dangerous. The Pope's object was to drive 
Louis out of Italy. Ferdinand of Spain wanted not only 
to get rid of the rivalship of France in Italy, but also to 
annex the province of Navarre to Spain. Henry VIII. 



CH. II. 



The Oxford Reformers, 



8 9 




FRENCH PROVINCES CLAIMED 
BY HENRY VIII. 



was tempted to revive 

the claims of England 

on the Duchy of Gui- 

enne, which since the 

close of the Hundred 

Years' War had been 

annexed to the French 

Crown. The Emperor 

Maximilian was always 

anxious to enlarge his 

borders at the expense 

of France. So these 

princes formed what 

was called * the Holy 

Alliance,' with the 

Pope at their, head, against France, and in 1511 the holy 

war began. The campaign of that year TT 

,','., r " ,. , . , Henry \ III. s 

ended in the crafty Ferdinand getting and first campaign. 
keeping Navarre, while Henry the Eighth's 
invasion of Guienne miserably failed. His troops mu- 
tinied, and returned to England in utter disorder. 

In the spring of 1513 preparations were being made 
for another campaign on a greater scale. It was in these 
preparations that his great minister Wol- 
sey's great talents came into play. Henry 
VIII. had set his heart on a brilliant invasion of France 
in order to wipe out the dishonour of the last campaign. 
He watched the equipment of his fleet, and ordered Ad- 
miral Howard to tell him ' how every ship did sail.' 

Just as everything was ready Julius II. died, and the 
Cardinal de' Medici, Linacre's fellow-student, whose ac- 
quaintance Erasmus had made in Italy, was _ ,. TT 

x J Julius II. suc- 

elected Pope under the title of Leo X. The ceeded by Leo 
new Pope cared for literature and art and 



Wolsey. 



9° The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

building St. Peter's at Rome more than for war, and ex- 
pressed his anxiety to bring about a peace. But Henry 
B H VIII. had set his heart upon a glorious war, 

persists in in- and in spite of the death of the head of the 

vading France. TT -, .-,-. ,. . , ,-,. 

Holy Alliance, and m spite also of his 
father-in-law Ferdinand's hanging back at the last mo- 
ment, he was determined to go on. Admiral Howard in 
his first engagement with the French, lost his life in a 
brilliant exploit, and his crew, disheartened, returned to 
Plymouth. But still Henry VIII. set sail with the rest 
of the ships for Calais, with 'such a fleet as Neptune 
^ ■ x. c never saw before,' and from Calais he 

Gains the Bat- 
tle of the marched his army a few leagues beyond the 

French frontier, took some towns of small 
importance, and turned the French army to flight at the 
Battle of the Spurs. ^ 

He did little harm to France or good to England, but 
got some sort of a victory, and so gratified his vanity. 

There were of course great rejoicings, tourna- 
sionofEng- ments, and pageants, but just in the midst 

of them came the news that the Scotch, 
always troublesome neighbours in those days, before the 
union of the two kingdoms, had, incited by France, taken 
the opportunity of Henry VIII. 's absence in France to 
invade England, but that through the zeal and energy 
of Queen Catherine they- had been defeated, and the 
Battle of King of Scots himself slain, with a host of 

the Scotch nobility, at the Battle of Flodden. 
Whereupon Henry VIII., finding nothing better to do, 
amid great show of rejoicing returned to England, bent 
upon preparing for another invasion by-and-by. 

But his father-in-law, Ferdinand, had served him so 
badly in these two campaigns — leaving him to bear the 
brunt of them, while he contented himself with taking 



CH. ii. The Oxford Reformers. 91 

and keeping Navarre — that the end of it was a strange 
shuffling of the cards. Henry VIII. made Henry VIII. 
peace with Louis XII., and England and F?an J c°e against 
France combined to wrest back again from s P am - 
Spain that very province of Navarre which Henry VIII. 
had helped Ferdinand to wrest from France only a few 
years before. 

In January 1 5 1 5 this unholy alliance was broken by 
Louis XII. 's death. He was succeeded by Francis I.., 
who, eager, like his young rival, Henry 
VIII. , to win his spurs in a European war, succeeded by 
at once declared his intention that the ' mon- Francis I - 
archy of Christendom should rest under the Francis I. 

J invades Italy, 

banner of France, as it was wont to do ! ' A and recovers 
few months after, he started on the Italian 
campaign, in which, after defeating the Swiss soldiers at 
the battle of Marignano, he recovered the Duchy of Milan. 

Again both Ferdinand and Henry VIII. 
were made friends by their common jeal- ifs P a?ntm- 
ousy of France. It would never do to let bine against 

J r ranee. 

France become the first power in Europe. 

So during these years, instead of an Augustan age of 
peace, reform, and progress in the new learning and 
civilization, through the jealousy and lust of 
military glory of her kings, stirred up by the king^against 
late warlike Pope and his Holy Alliance, E^pf 65 * 
Europe '*- r as harried with these barbarous 
wars! 

We have seen, in the chapter on France, how her 
national wars tended to increase the power of the Crown* 
and how the fact that the Crown was abso- 
lute and backed by its standing army, while Sded to 
it tended to keep France a united kingdom ™ ak f kings 

r ° absolute. 

on the map, injured the nation. So it was 



92 The Protestant Revolution. pt. i. 

The ex- a } so m measure — happily only in measure — ■ 

France. in England. These wars tended to make 

the king absolute. To carry them on, not only were all 
the hoarded treasures of Henry VII. dispersed, but fresh 
taxes were needed ; and when all the taxes were spent 
that could be got legally out of votes of Parliament, 
Wolsey was driven to get more money by illegal means. 
Narrow Had the war-fever gone on a little longer— 

EnT e d J ust so l° n £ as to establish the precedent of 

the king's levying taxes without consent of 
Parliament — then England might well have lost her 
free constitution, just as France had already done. But, 
happily, this was not so to be. 

In the meantime, let us see how the Oxford Reformers 
acted in this crisis of European affairs, how they used all 
their influence to set the public opinion of the educated 
world against this evil policy of European princes. 
Coiet Colet preached against the wars to the 

a^nsfthe people from his pulpit at St. Paul's, and to 
wars. the king from the pulpit of the royal chapel ; 

and his enemies tried to get him into trouble with the king 
for doing so. But Henry VIII., wild as he was for military 
glory, was generous enough to respect the sincerity and 
boldness of the dean ; and though not wise enough to follow 
his advice, refused to stop his preaching. Erasmus made 
known to his learned friends all over Europe this bold con- 
duct of Colet and his hatred of war. He also, in his 
Erasm letters to the Pope, princes, cardinals, bish- 

against ops, and influential men everywhere, protest- 

them too, t . iri . . , ,. -, . -, 

ed against the false international policy which 
sacrificed the good of the people to the ambition of kings, 
and also More also made no secret to the king that 

More. h e was opposed to his conquering France, 

and that he hated the wars. 



r:H. ii. The Oxford Reformers. 93 

(h) The kind of Reform aimed at by the Oxford 

Refonners. 

It so happened that just at this time Erasmus was 
invited to the court of Prince Charles of the Netherlands 
( afterwards the Emperor Charles V.), and Erasmus 
that More was also being drawn by Henry ™^f c £ lor 
VIII. into his royal service. They both at of Prince 

■* . Charles. 

length yielded. Erasmus became a privy 
councillor of Prince Charles, on condition in^He^ 1 * 
that it should not interfere with his literary ^HI-V 
work. More became a courtier of Henry 
VIII. when peace was made with France, on condition 
that in all things he should ' first look to God, and after 
Him to the king.' 

Both Erasmus and More, in thus entering royal ser- 
vice, published pamphlets or books containing a state- 
ment of their views on politics. Erasmus called his 
• The Christian Prince ; ' More called his a * Description 
of the Commonwealth of Utopia.' 

Erasmus, in his 'Christian Prince,' urged that the 
Golden Rule ought to guide the actions of The 
princes — that they should never enter upon p^n"? of 
a war that could possibly be avoided, that Erasmus. 
the good of their people should be their sole object, that 
it was the people's choice which gave a king his title to 
his throne, that a constitutional monarchy is much better 
than an absolute one, that kings should aim at taxing 
their people as little as possible ; that the necessaries of 
life, things in common use among the lowest classes, 
ought not to be taxed, but luxuries of the rich, and so 
on: the key-note of the whole being that the object of 
nations and governments is the common weal of the 
whole people. 



94 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

In the meanwhile, More, in his 'Utopia,' or descrip- 
tion of the manners and customs of an ideal common- 
More's wealth (' Utopia ' meaning ' nowhere '), urged 

'Utopia.' j ust t h e S ame points. The Utopians 

elected their own king, as well as his council or parlia- 
ment. They would not let him rule over anothei 
country as well: they said he had enough to do to 
govern their own island. The Utopians hated war as 
the worst of evils ; the Utopians aimed not at making 
the king and a few nobles rich, but the whole people. 
All property belonged to the nation, and so all the peo- 
ple were well off. Nor was education confined to one 
class ; in Utopia everyone was taught to read and write. 
All magistrates and priests were elected by the people. 
Every family had a vote, and the votes were taken by 
ballot. Thus the key-note of More's 'Utopia' was, like 
the ' Christian Prince ' of Erasmus, that governments and 
nations exist for the common weal of the whole people. 

If we turn back to the description already given of 
the two points which mark the spirit of modern civiliza- 
tion, and judge these sentiments of Eras- 
entSd mus and More from that point of view, we 

intTthf y cannot fail to see how thoroughly they en- 
spirit of tered into the spirit of the new era, and how 

modern r 

civilization. correct and far-reaching were the reforms 
which they urged upon the public opinion of Europe. 

We must not leave the Oxford Reformers without 
trying to get a clear idea of the kind of religious reform 
which they urged. 

We have seen that Colet's object was to set the minds 
of men free from the bonds of the scholastic 

The character , .. . . 

of their system, by leading men back from the 

refo?m US schoolmen to the teaching of Christ and 

His Apostles in the New Testament. 



CH. II. The Oxford Reformers. 95 

Erasmus had been all this while labouring hard in 
fellow-work with him. He had for years been working 
at, and now, in 1516, published at the printing-press at 
Basle, a book which did more to prepare the way for the 
religious reformation than any other book 
published during this era. This was his Testament 
edition of the New Testament, containing, ° iasmus - 
in two columns side by side, the original Greek and a 
new Latin translation of his own. He thus realized a 
great object, v/hich Colet had long had in view, viz., not 
only to draw men away from scholastic theology, but to 
place before them, in all the freshness of the original 
language and a new translation, the 'living picture' of 
Christ and His Apostles contained in the New Testa- 
ment. By so doing he laid a firm foundation for another 
great religious reform, viz., the translation of the New 
Testament into what was called ' the vulgar tongue ' of 
each country, thus bringing it within reach of the 
people as well as of the clergy. 

'I wish' (Erasmus said in his preface to his New 
Testament) ' that even the weakest woman should read 
'the Gospels — should read the Epistles of Paul; and I 
'wish that they were translated into all languages, so 
'that they might be read and understood not only 
'by Scots and Irishmen, but also by Turks and Sara- 
' cens. r long that the husbandman should sing por- 
'tions of them to himself as he follows the plough, 
'that the weaver should hum them to the tune of his 
'shuttle, that the traveller should beguile with their 
'stories the tedium of his journey.' 

Of course this great work of Erasmus excited the oppo- 
sition and hatred of the men of the old school, and espe- 
cially of the monks and scholastic divines, to whom the 
old Vulgate version was sacred, and Greek a heretical 



96 The Protestant Revolution. pt. 11. 

tongue. But the New Testament went through several 
large editions, and when, a few years after, the learned 
men of the Sorbonne at Paris complained of what they 
called its heresies, Erasmus was able to reply trium- 
phantly, 'You are too late in your objections. You 
should have spoken sooner. It is now scattered over 
Europe by thousands of copies ! ' 

One other point we have to fix in our minds — the 
attitude of the Oxford Reformers to the ecclesiastical 
r™ , . j , system. We have seen that their notion of 

The kind of ,. . 

ecciesiasti- religion was that it was a thing of the heart 
urged byAe — the l° ve of God and man. They believed 
formed Re " that lt was intended to bind men together 
in a common brotherhood, not to divide them 
into sects. They complained how rival orders of monks 
and schools of theology hated one another. Christians 
might differ about doctrines, but they ought to agree in 
They aimed the worship of God and in their love of one 
and tolerant another. Hence More in his Utopia had 
Church. described the Utopians as giving full tolera- 

tion to all varieties of doctrines and differences of creeds ; 
and pictured all worshipping together in one united and 
simple mode of worship, expressly so arranged as to hurt 
the feelings of no sect among them, so that they all might 
join in it as an expression of their common brotherhood 
in the sight of God. 

It is clear that, holding these views, they were likely 
to urge, as they did earnestly urge, the reform of the 
ecclesiastical system, but that if at any time a great 
dissension were to arise in the Church, they would urge 
that the Church should be reformed and widened so as 
to give offence to neither party, and include 
likely to op- both within it, and would oppose with all 
pose schism. their might anyt hing which should break up 



ch. in. The Wittenberg Reformers. 97 

its unity and cause a schism. Whether right or wrong, 
this would be the course which their own deep convic- 
tions would be likely to lead them to take, and this, we 
shall see, was the line the survivors of them did take 
when the Protestant struggle came on. We say * the 
survivors,' because Colet did not live to work much 
longer. Even now, driven into retirement by the perse- 
cution of the old Bishop of London, he could do little 
but work at his school. And he died in 15 19. 

To the beginning of the Protestant movement we 
must now turn our attention. 



CHAPTER TIL 

THE WITTENBERG REFORMERS. 

(a) Martin Luther becomes a Reformer. 

Martin Luther was born in 1483, and so was 15 years 
younger than Erasmus and Colet, and three 

,,./-., Bora 1483. 

years younger even than their young friend 
More. 

His great-grandfather and grandfather were Saxon 
peasants, but his father being a younger son had left 
home and become a miner or slate-cutter at 
Mansfield in Thuringia. Both his parents school 
were rough and hot-tempered, but true and and . to uni " 
honest at heart. Though working hard for 
a living, they sent their sons to school, and wishing Mar- 
tin to become a lawyer, they found means to send him to 
the university of Erfurt. There he took his degree of 
M. A. 

In 1505, in fulfilment some say of a vow' made in a 
dreadful thunderstorm, when he thought his end was 

H 



qS The Protestant Revolution. pt. ill 

near, Luther, contrary to his father's wishes, 

Becomes a . . ' , *• i i , A 

monk. left his law studies and entered the Augus- 

tine monastery at Erfurt. He inherited the superstitious 
nature of the German peasantry. He traced every harm 
that came to him through passion and temptation all 
alike to the Devil. His conscience was often troubled. 
His fasts and penances did not give him peace. He 
passed through great mental struggles, sometimes shut 
himself up in his cell for days, and once was found sense- 
less on the floor. At length he found peace of mind in 
the doctrine of 'justification by faith,' i. e., that forgive- 
ness of sins, instead of being got by fasts and penances 
and ceremonies, is given freely to those who have faith 
in Christ. This doctrine he learned partly from the pious 
vicar-general cf the monastery, partly from the works of 
St. Augustine, and under their guidance from a study of 
the Bible. From this time he accepted also 

Adopts the l 

theology of St. other parts of the theology of St. Augustine, 
and especially those which, because they 
were afterwards adopted by Calvin, are now called ' Cal- 
vinistic,' such as that all things are fated to happen ac- 
cording to the divine will, that man has therefore no free 
will, and that only an elect number, predestinated to 
receive the gift of faith, are saved. 

It is well to mark here that these Augustinian doctrines 

were, in fact, a part of that scholastic theology from 

which the Oxford Reformers were trying to 

feredfrom the set men f ree - I n not accepting them they 

Oxford Re- differed from Liither. But they and Luther 

formers. J 

had one thing in common. They alike held 
that religion did not consist in ceremonies, but was a 
thing of the heart ; that true worship must be in spirit 
and in truth. 

In 1 508 Luther was removed from Erfurt to the Augus- 



CH. in. The Wittenberg Refor?ners. 99 

tinian monastery at Wittenberg, and soon 

1 1 ! tt • • Luther re- 

after made preacher there at the University moves to Wit« 

recently founded by the Elector of Saxony. ten erg ' 

In 1 5 10 he was sent on an errand for his monastery 

to Rome. There he found wicked priests „. . „ 

x Visits Rome. 

performing masses in the churches, ignorant 
worshippers buying forgiveness of sins from the priests, 
and doing at their bidding all kinds of penances ; and 
he came back zealous, like Colet, for reform, and with 
the words 'the just shall live by faith' more than ever 
ringing in his ears. 

He had been preaching and teaching the theology of 
St. Augustine at Wittenberg several years with great ear- 
nestness, when in iu6 he read the new edi- n ■ , . „ 

J Reads the New 

tion of the New Testament by Erasmus. Testament of 
The works of Erasmus had an honourable 
place on the shelves of the Elector of Saxony's library, 
and his New Testament was the common talk of learned 
men at the universities, even at this youngest of them all 
— Wittenberg. Luther eagerly turned over its pages, re- 
joicing in the new light it shed on old familiar passages; 
but what a disappointment it was to him as by degrees 
he discovered that there was a great difference betv/een 
Erasmus and himself — that Erasmus did not accept those 
Augustinian doctrines on which his own faith was built ! 
He knew that Erasmus was doing a great work towards 
the needed reform, and this made it all the more painful 
to find that in these points they differed. He was * moved ' 
by it, but, he wrote to a friend, ' I keep it to n . , 

J ' ' » r Finds out the 

myself, lest I should play into the hands of difierence in 
his enemies. May God give him under- 
standing in his own good time ! ' 

This is a fact that in justice to both should *iever be 
forgotten. Luther, was conscious of it from the rirst, an<d 



ioo The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

it had this future significance, that if Protestantism (as it 
afterwards did) should follow Luther and adopt the 
Augustinian theology, Erasmus and the Oxford Re- 
formers never could become Protestants. Luther might 
wisely try to keep it secret, but if matters of doctrine 
should ever come to the front, the breach between them 
was sure to come out. 

{b) The Sale of Indulgences ( 1 5 1 7 ) . 

While Luther was preaching Augustinian doctrines at 
Wittenberg, and Erasmus was hard at work at a second 
edition of his New Testament, pressing More's 'Utopia' 
and his own ' Christian Prince ' on the notice of princes 
and their courtiers, expressing to his friends at Rome 
his hopes that under Leo X. Rome might become the 
centre of peace and religion, Europe was all at once 
brought by the scandalous conduct of Princes and the 
Pope to the brink of revolution. 

Leo X. wanted money to help his nephew in a little 
war he had on hand. To get this money he offered to 
Leo x.'s grant indulgences or pardons at a certain 

getmoney°by price, to those who would contribute money 
indulgence. to the building of St. Peter's at Rome. The 
people were still ignorant enough to believe in the 
Pope's power to grant pardons for sins, and there was 
no doubt they would buy them, and so gold would flow 
into the coffers of Rome. There was one obstacle. 
Princes were growing jealous of their subjects' money 
nn . being drawn towards Rome. But Leo X. 

Offers princes ° . . . 

a share in the got over this obstacle by giving them a 
sp01 * share in the spoil. He offered Henry VIII. 

one-fourth of what came from England, but Henry VIII. 
haggled and bargained to get a third ! Kings had made 
themselves poor by their wars, and a share in the papal 



CH. ill. The Wittenberg Reformers. 101 

spoils on their own subjects was a greater temptation 
tkan they could resist. 

Erasmus in his ' Praise of Folly ' had described indul- 
gences as 'the crime of false pardons,' and 

• i i-iii i Erasmus 

now in every letter and book he wrote he writes bitterly 
bitterly complained of the Pope and Princes agamst ltm 
for resorting to them again. 
He wrote to Colet : — 

' I have made up my mind to spend the remainder of my life 
with you in retirement from a world which is everywhere rotten. 
Ecclesiastical hypocrites rule in the courts of princes. The Court 
of Rome clearly has lost all sense of shame ; for what could be 
more shameless than these continued indulgences 1 ' 

And in a letter to another friend, he said : — 

' All sense of shame has vanished from human affairs. I see that 
the very height of tyranny has been reached. The Pope and 
Kings count the people not as men, but as cattle in the market I ' 

But though Erasmus numbered among his friends Leo 
X., Henry VIII., Francis I., and Prince Charles, he 
found them deaf to his satire, and unwilling 
to reform abuses which filled their treasuries, kingfwilfnot 

They would not listen to Erasmus. It re- listen - 
mained to be proved whether they would listen to Lu^ 
ther! 

(c) Luther's Attack on Indulgences (ijiy.) 
Wittenberg was an old-fashioned town in Saxony, on 
the Elbe. Its main street was parallel with the broad 
river, and within its walls, at one end of it, „ T . 

Wittenberg. 

near the Elster gate, lay the University, 
founded by the good Elector — -Frederic of Saxony — of 
which Luther was a professor ; while at the other end of 
it was the palace of the Elector and the palace church of 
All Saints. The great parish church lifted its two towers 



x o2 The Protestant Revolution. pt. n. 

from the centre of the town, a little back from the main 

street. This was the town in which Luther had been 

preaching for years, and towards whtch Tet- 

Tetzel comes , , ,. r . , , 

near, selling zel, the seller of indulgences, now came, just 
indulgences. as he did tQ Qther towns> ve nding his ' false 

pardons ' — granting indulgences for sins to those who 
could pay for them, and offering to release from purga- 
tory the souls of the dead, if any of their friends would 
pay for their release. As soon as the money chinked in 
his money-box, the souls of their dead friends would be 
let out of purgatory. This was the gospel of Tetzel. It 
made Luther's blood boil. He knew that what the Pope 
wanted was people's money, and that the whole thing 
was a cheat. This his Augustinian theology had taught 
him ; and he was not a man to hold back when he saw 
what ought to be done. He did see it. On the day be- 
fore the festival of All Saints, on which the relics of the 
Church were displayed to the crowds of country people 
who flocked into the town, Luther passed down the long 
street with a copy of ninety-five theses or statements 
Luther's against indulgences in his hand, and nailed 

against in- them upon the door of the palace church 
duigences. ready for the festival on the morrow. Also 

on All Saints' day he read them to the people in the 
great parish church. 

It would not have mattered much to Tetzel or the Pope 
that the monk of Wittenberg had nailed up his papers on 
He is backed the palace church, had it not been that he 
Elector of was backed by the Elector of Saxony. The 

Saxony. Elector was an honest man, and had the 

good of the German people at heart. Luther's theses 
laid hold of his mind, and a few days after it is said that 
he dreamed that he saw the monk writing on the door of 
his church in letters so large that he could read thero 



ch. in. The Wittenberg Reformers. 103 

eighteen, miles off at his palace where he was, and that 
the pen grew longer and longer, till at last it reached to 
Rome, touched the Pope's triple crown and made it tot- 
ter. He was stretching out his arm to catch it when he 
awoke ! The Elector of Saxony, whether he dreamed 
this dream awake or asleep, was at least wide awake 
enough to refuse permission for Tetzel to enter his do- 
minions. 

Then came a year or two of controversy and angry 
disputes ; and just at the right time came Philip Melanch* 
ihon, from the University of Tubingen, to 
strengthen the staff of the Elector's new Melanch- 
University at Wittenberg — a man deep in to°wft°en- S 
Hebrew and Greek, a half-disciple of Eras- berg - 
mus — already pointed out as likely to turn out ' Erasmus 
II.,' of gentle, sensitive, and affectionate nature, the very 
opposite of Luther, but yet just what was wanted in 
another Wittenberg Reformer — to help in argument and 
width of learning ; to be in fact to Luther, partly what 
Erasmus had been to Colet. In the weary and hot dis- 
putes which now came upon Luther, Melanchthon was 
always at his elbow, and helped him in his arguments ; 
while the fame of Luther's manly conduct and Melanch- 
thon' s learning all helped to draw students to the Uni- 
versity from far and near, and so to spread the views of 
the Wittenberg Reformers more and more widely. 

(d) The Election of Charles V. to the Empire (13 ig). 
Suddenly, in 15 19, the noise of religious disputes was 
drowned in the still greater noise of political excitement 
Maximilian died, and a new Emperor had to _ , . 

. r Death of 

be elected. Prince Charles, who was now Maximilian. 
King of Spain also, wanted to be Emperor ; f or the 
so did Francis L, though a Frenchman ; so Em P ire - 



104 The Protestant Revolution. ft. n. 

did Henry VIII., claiming that, though England was not 
a subject of the Empire, the English language was a 
German tongue, while French was not. The princes 
of the Empire wanted the Elector of Saxony to be Em- 
peror, but he was the one man who cared most for the 
interests of Germany, and had least selfish ambition. 

It was a question which of the three princes could 

bribe a majority of the seven Electors. Henry VIII. did 

not risk enough to give himself a chance. It was not 

really likely that, however much they might 

elected be bribed, the Electors, who were all Ger- 

through the . . , , „ , 

influence of man princes, would choose a Frenchman. 
of e sSfony r The Elector of Saxony practically decided 
the election in favour of Prince Charles. 
The following letter of Erasmus, who was a councillor of 
Prince Charles, will show what manner of man the good 
Elector was. 

' The Duke Frederic of Saxony has written twice to me in reply 
to my letter. Luther is supported solely by his protection. He 
says that he has acted thus for the sake rather of the cause than of 
the person (of Luther). He adds, that he will not lend himself to 
the oppression of innocence in his dominions by the malice of those 
who seek their own, and not the things of Christ.' . . . ' When the 
imperial crown was offered to Frederic of Saxony by all (the Elec- 
tors), with great magnanimity he refused it, the very day before 
Charles was elected. And Charles never would have worn the im- 
perial title had it not been declined by Frederic, whose glory in re- 
fusing the honour was greater than if he had accepted it. When he 
was asked who he thought should be elected, he said that no one 
seemed to him able to bear the weight of so great a name but 
Charles. In the same noble spirit he firmly refused the 30,000 flo- 
rins offered him by our people (i. e. the agents of Charles). When 
he was urged that at least he would allow 10,000 florins to be given 
to his servants, " They may take them " (he said) " if they like, but 
no one shall remain my servant another day who accepts a single 



en. in. 



The Wittenberg Reformers. 



i°5 



piece of gold." The next day he took horse and departed, lest 
they should continue to bother him. This was related to me as 
entirely credible by the Bishop of Liege, who was present at the 
Imperial Diet.' 

Would that Charles V. had followed throughout his 
reign the counsels of the good Elector to whom he owed 
his crown ! Charles's grandfather, Ferdinand, had died 
only a few months before, and he was himself in Spain, 




settling the affairs of his new kingdom, when he was 
elected. We have now to mark what power had fallen 
into the hands of this prince of the House of Hapsburg. 
On the map are distinguished the Austrian, Extent of 
Burgundian, and Spanish provinces which Charles V.'s 
came under his rule. We must remember, 
too, how the ambition cf Spain was to increase its Ital- 



io6 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

ian possessions, and that, as head of the 'Holy Roman 
Empire,' he was also nominally King of Italy! 



{e) Luther's Breach with Rome (1520). 

While these political events had been absorbing atten- 
tion, the religious disputes between Luther and the papal 
party had been going on. 
T , „ , They had this singular effect upon Luther : 

Luther finds J . b r 

nimself a they drove him to see that his Augustiman 

views were identical with those of Wiclif and 
Huss. He was astonished, as he described it, to find 
riiat 'he was a Hussite without knowing it; that St. Paul 
and Augustine were Hussites ! ' 

The fact was that Wiclif and Huss, like Luther, had 
in a great degree got their views from the works of St. 
Augustine : they had so adopted many of the doctrines 
which belonged to what we have said is now called the 
Calvinistic theology. 

This discovery hastened on his quarrel with the Pope. 
The Pope and Councils had denounced Wiclif and Huss 
as heretics ; therefore Popes and Councils were not in- 
fallible. This was the conclusion to which 

Rumoured Pa- 

pal Bull against Luther came. Luther had declared himself 
a Hussite, therefore the papal party con- 
tended he must, like Huss, be a heretic; and the long 
continuance of the Hussite wars being taken into account 
he must be a dangerous heretic. So the Pope made up 
his mind to issue a Papal Bull against Luther. 

When rumours of this reached Luther, so far from be- 
ing fearful, he became defiant. He at once wrote two 
pamphlets. 

The first was addressed ' To the Nobility of the German 
nation? It was published, in both Latin and German, in 



ch. ill. The Wittenberg Refon?iers. 107 

1520, and 4,000 copies were at once sold. 

If we bear in mind what has already been phiet^the™" 

said in the section ' On the Ecclesiastical " obilit y of . the 

German nation. 

System,' the chief points of the pamphlet 
will be easily understood. 

The gist of it was as follows : — 

' To his Imperial Majesty and the Christian Nobility of the Ger- 
man nation, Martin Luther wishes grace, &c. The Romanists have 
raised round themselves walls to protect themselves from reform. 
One is their doctrine, that there are two separate estates ; the one 
spiritual, viz. pope, bishops, priests, and monks ; the other secular, 
viz. princes, nobles, artisans, and peasants. And they lay it down 
that the secular power has no power over the spiritual, but that the 
spiritual is above the secular; whereas, in truth, all Christians are 
spiritual, and there is no difference between them. The secular 
power is of God, to punish the wicked and protect the good, and so 
has rule over the whole body of Christians, without exception, pope, 
bishops, monks, nuns and all. For St. Paul says, ' Let every soul 
(and I reckon the Pope one) be subject to the higher powers.' 
[Luther was writing this to the secular princes, and they were likely 
to listen to this setting up of their authority above that of the clergy. 
He was writing also to the German nation, and he knew well how 
to catch their ear too.] ' Why should 300,000 florins be sent every 
year from Germany to Rome ? Why do the Germans let themselves 
be fleeced by cardinals who get hold of the best preferments and 
spend the revenues at Rome? Let us not give another farthing to the 
Pope as subsidies against the Turks ; the whole thing is a snare to 
drain us of more money. Let the secular authorities send no more 
annates to Rome. Let the power of the Pope be reduced within 
clear limits. Let there be fewer cardinals, and let them not keep 
the best things to themselves. Let the national churches be more 
independent of Rome. Let there be fewer pilgrimages to Italy. 
Let there be fewer convents. Let priests marry. Let begging be 
stopped by making each parish take charge of its own poor. Let 
us inquire into the position of the Bohemians, and if Husswas in 
the right, let us join with him in resisting Rome.' 



108 The Protestant Revolution. pt. n. 

And then, at the end, he threw these few words of defi- 
ance at the Pope : — 

' Enough for this time ! I know right well that I have sung in a 
high strain. Well, I know another little song about Rome and her 
people! Do their ears itch? I will sing it also, and in the highest 
notes ! Dost thou know well, my dear Rome, what I mean ? ' 

His other pamphlet — his ' other little song about Rome ' 

— was an attack upon her doctrines. It was entitled 

' On the Babylonish Captivity of the Church' 

Another pam- .... . • , 

phiet on the and in it he repeated his condemnation of 
Captivityof indulgences, denied that the supremacy of 
the Church.' the p ope was of di v i ne r i gnt) declared the 

Pope a usurper, and the Papacy the kingdom of Baby- 
lon ; and then, turning to matters of doctrine, boldly re- 
duced the sacraments of the Church, by an appeal to 
Scripture, from seven to three — Baptism, Penance, and 
the Lord's Supper. He ended this pamphlet in as defiant 
a tone as the other. 'He heard' (he said) 'that Bulls 
' and other terrible Papistical things were being prepared, 
'by which he was to be urged to recant or be declared a 
'heretic. Let this little book be taken as a part of his 
'recantation, and as an earnest of what was to come ! ' 

While the printing-press was scattering thousands of 
copies of these pamphlets all over Germany, in Latin for 
The Bull tne learned, and in German for the corn- 

arrives. mon people, the Bull arrived, and the 

Elector of Saxony was ordered by the Pope to deliver 
up the heretic Luther. The question now was, What 
would Luther do with the Bull, and the Elector with 
Luther? 

(/) The Elector of Saxony co7isults Erasmus, 
December 6, 1 520. 

Much at this moment depended on what the good 
Elector of Saxony would do. Well was it that the fate 



CH. in. The Wittenberg Reformers. 109 

of Luther lay in the hands of so conscientious a prince. 
He and his secretary Spalatin were at Cologne, where 
Charles V., after his recent coronation, was holding his 
court. Melanchthon and Luther were in constant corres- 
pondence with Spalatin. Melanchthon wrote that all 
their hopes rested with the prince, and urged Spalatin to 
do his best to prevent Luther being crushed, — ' a man,' 
he said, ' who seemed to him almost inspired, and 
whom he dared to put not only above any other man 
of the age, but even above all the Augustines and 
Jeromes of any age ! ' So enthusiastic a disciple of the 
bold Luther had the gentle Melanchthon become! 
Spalatin did his best. 

Aleander, the Pope's nuncio, and supposed author of 
the ' Bull,' was at Cologne, wild against Luther and 
doing all he could to get the Emperor to make common 
cause with the Pope. He knew that the Elector of 
Saxony stood in the way, and did his best . , 

.... t^ , . ,- Aleander, 

to wm him over. Erasmus, being one of the Pope's 
the Emperor's council, also was there, and toSw"? 
Aleander knew that he, too, was against f|^o n tor 
the crushing of the poor monk, and if he 
could have bribed him over with a bishopric, or secretly 
poisoned him, there is evidence that it would most likely 
have been done. The Elector was bent upon doing what 
was right and best for Germany and for Christendom, 
and anxious to have the advice of the best and the 
wisest men upon the course he should take. Erasmus 
had written to the Wittenberg Reformers, praising their 
zeal, but advising more gentleness. Melanchthon had 
sent the letter from Erasmus to the good Elector, 
who now wanted to consult Erasmus confidentially him- 
self. Spalatin managed the interview. It was in the 
Elector's rooms at the inn of 'The Three Kings' that 



no The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

they met, the Elector, Erasmus and Spalatin. The 
Elector asked of Erasmus through Spalatin, in Latin, as 
they stood over the fire, 'What he really thought of 
„,, „, Luther?' and fixed his eyes eagerly upon 

The Elector . J £> ■ J . V 

asks advice him as he waited for an answer. Erasmus 
rasmus. sa \^ with, a smile, ' Luther has committed 
two crimes! He has hit the Pope on the crown and 
the monks on the belly.' 

This was exactly the truth. The Elector's dream had 
come true. Luther's great pen had reached to Rome 
and touched the Pope's triple crown. Leo X. was a sort 
of patron of Erasmus, but that did not hinder Erasmus 
from condemning the Bull. The monks were his old 
enemies, bitter against the new learning, haters of him- 
self and Colet as well as Luther, because they saw their 
craft was in danger as men's eyes became more and 
more opened. Therefore Erasmus could afford to smile 
a bitter sarcastic smile at the expense of both Pope and 
monks. Before he left he wrote down on paper a short 
The advice statement of his opinion that the monks' 
of Erasmus. hatred of the new learning was at the bot- 
tom of their zeal against Luther, whilst only two uni- 
versities had condemned him ; that Luther's demand to 
be properly heard was a fair one ; and that being a man 
void of ambition, he was less likely to be a heretic. At 
all events the views of Luther's opponents were worse 
than his ; all honest men disapproved of the Bull ; and 
clemency was what ought to be expected of the new 
Emperor. 

While thus he spoke in favour of fair dealing with 
Luther, he at the same time found much fault with Lu- 
The Elector the 1 "' 5 violent way of going to work and his 
follows it. abusive language. The result of the inter- 

view was reported to Luther. Melanchthon and he were 



ch. in. The Wittenberg ReJ vr mers. in 

well satisfied with the advice given by Erasmus. They 
considered that it had great weight in strengthening the 
Elector in favour of Luther. At all events the Elector 
followed it in two points — he remained firm in defence 
of Luther, and at the same time he wrote and recom- 
mended to Luther more of that gentleness the want of 
which had displeased Erasmus. 

[g] Luther burns the Pope's Bull, December 10, 1520. 

Perhaps the advice of the Elector to Luther came just 
too late ! The meeting with Erasmus at the inn of the 
' Three Kings ' at Cologne was on December 5. In the 
meantime Luther had been making up his mind what to 
do, and on the 10th he did it, we may suppose before the 
posts from Cologne had reached him. 

Excited, and as Melanchthon said, seeming almost 
inspired, conscious of right and also of power, Luther 
wished all Europe to see that a German monk could dare 
to defy the Pope. Had there been a mountain at Wit- 
tenberg he would have lit his bonfire on the top, and let 
the world, far and near, see the Pope's Bull blaze in its 
flames. But there was not even a hill in that Luther 
flat country. So in solemn procession, at burns the 
the head of his fellow-doctors and the stu- 
dents of the university, he marched through the Elster 
gate, and there, outside the city walls, in presence of the 
great German river Elbe, he burned the Bull, and as 
many Roman law books as he could find. His burning 
the Bull against himself was a personal act of defiance. 
His burning the Roman law books was a public decla- 
ration that the German nation ought not to be subject to 
the jurisdiction of Rome. Amid the cheers of the crowd, 
Luther returned to his rooms. That a man of hot tem- 
per, fastening by his daring act the eyes of all Europe 



ii2 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

upon himself, assuming as it were the leadership of a na- 
tional crusade against the Pope of Rome, should be for 
the moment carried away by excitement into extrava- 
gance was only natural. Luther was in fact greatly 
excited, and on the next day, in his crowded lecture- 
room, let himself utter wild words, declaring that those 
who did not join in contending against the Pope could 
not be saved, and that those who took delight in the 
Pope's religion must be lost for ever. He then wrote an 
abusive reply to the Bull, hurling all sorts of bad names 
against the Pope, and pushing his Augustinian doctrines 
to so extreme a point as to amount to fatalism. 

Grand as is the figure of Luther on the page of history, 
as, in December 1520, he dared to make himself the 
mouth-piece of Germany, demanding reform, threatening 
revolution if reform could not be had, it must be admitted 
Erasmus t ^ iat ne was pl avm g w i tn fire. Was not the 

fears revolu- tra i n already laid for revolution ? Will not 

tion. J 

such wild words lead to still wilder acts of 
the ignorant peasantry ? Sober-minded lookers on, like 
Erasmus, feared this. He had feared from the first that 
Luther's want of discretion might bring on a ' universal 
revolution,' and had therefore urged moderation. Instead 
of moderation had come still wilder defiance. ' Now,' 
he wrote, ' I see no end of it but the turning upside down 
' of the whole world. . . . When I was at Cologne I 
' made every effort that Luther might have the glory of 
' obedience and the Pope of clemency, and some of the 
* sovereigns approved this advice. But lo and behold, 
'the burning of the Decretals, the " Babylonish captivi- 
ty;" those propositions of Luther, so much stronger 
'than they need be, have made the evil apparently 
'incurable.' 



ch. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 113 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CRISIS. — REFORM OR REVOLUTION. — REFORM 
REFUSED BY THE RULING POWERS. 

(a) Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen. 
The fears of Erasmus were well founded. There were 
wilder spirits in Germany than Luther. 

Not far north of Worms, where the first Diet of the 
Emperor Charles V. was going to meet, was the castle 
of Ebernburg, where the bold knight Franz von Sickingen 
had gathered round him the chiefs of these wild spirits. 
Franz himself was a wild lawless knight, liv- __ _ , . 

. ° The Robin 

ing upon private war, hiring out himself and Hoods of 
his soldiers to fight out private quarrels, and, side with 
like his relative Goetz von Berlichingen, Luther - 
popular because of his bravery and rough justice. 
Goetz and Franz might be said to be in many respects, 
the Robin Hoods of Germany. 

Such a man as Franz was sure to side with Luther 
though he had already engaged himself and his soldiers 
for hire to the Emperor Charles V. One of his guests at 
the castle was Ulrich von Hutten, a knight uinch von 
like himself, but there was this difference Hutten - 
between them. Hutten's pen was his lance. Placed 
like Erasmus in his youth in a cloister, he too had torn 
himself from it and taken to a literary life. Not so 
learned, but with even keener wit than Erasmus, neglect, 
poverty, and suffering had embittered more his wild war- 
like spirit. His pen was ever ready to be dipped in gall, 
and following the example set by Erasmus in his ' Praise 
of Folly,' he tried to mend the world by satire. H is satire 
He had been to Rome, and in Latin rhyming UDOn Rome- 
verses he held up her vices to scorn, He pointed out 
1 



114 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

in these rhymes how German gold flowed into the coffers 
of the ' Simon of Rome.' He sneered at the blindness 
and weakness of the German nation in letting them- 
selves be the dupes of Rome. When Luther came upon 
the scene, Hutten's heart was stirred. He made his re- 
solve to rush into the fight against Rome The fears and 
tears of his family could not stop him. He was disin- 
herited for doing it, but do it he must. Hitherto his 
rhymes had been in Latin, and thus only read by the 
learned. Henceforth he would write in German for the 
Fatherland. 

In Latin hitherto I've written, 
popular A tongue all did not understand : — 

rhymes n ow ca U I on the Fatherland, 

Rome. The German nation, in her mother tongue, 

To avenge these things. 

' Germany must abandon Rome. Liberty for ever ! 
The die is cast.' This was the cry of his popular Ger- 
man rhymes. 

To Luther he held out the hand of devoted friend- 
ship : — ■ 

Servant of God, despair not ! 

Could I but give a helping hand, 

Or in these matters counsel thee, 

So would I spare nor goods 

Nor my own blood ! 

And on the eve of the Diet of Worms he issued his 
* Complaint and exhortation against the extravagant and 
unchristian powe? of the Pope,' in rhyme, in which he 
exposed the tyranny, wealth, worldliness, and cost to 
Germany of Rome, and tried to lash up the German peo- 
ple into rebellion against it. Now was the time to free 
Germany from the Roman yoke. He ap- 
freedom from pealed to the Emperor as the natural leader 
Rome. Q f t j ie Q erman nation. It would redound 



CH. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 115 

to his honour. He alone should be the captain. 
All free Germans would serve with gladness the sa- 
viour of their country. ' Help, worthy king, unfurl the 
* standard of the eagle, and we will lift it high. If warn- 
' ings will not do, there are steeds and armour, halberts 
' and swords, and we will use them ! ' 

There was something pathetic in this cry of the Ger- 
mans to their Emperor. The very peasants of the 
' Bundschuh ' we saw would have made him their leader, 
had he listened to their appeal against their feudal op- 
pressors, and now the German nation was beseeching 
him to head their rebellion against Rome ! These were 
but outbursts of a general yearning for unity among the 
German people. They felt the necessity of central 
power as the only cure for the evils under which they 
suffered, and now when the quarrel of Luther and the 
Pope had brought ecclesiastical grievances to the top, 
the question was whether Charles V., in his first Diet, 
would side with the German nation, or sell the German 
nation for his own selfish objects to the Pope ! 

Meanwhile appearances were ugly. Luther wrote to 
Spalatin : ' I expect you will return with the stale news 
that there is no hope in the court of Charles.' g ma u c h an ces 
Erasmus wrote : ' There is no hope in of reform. 
Charles; he is surrounded by Sophists and Papists.' 
But Hutten hoped against hope. Such men are san- 
guine. If Charles would do his duty to Germany in the 
Diet of Worms, all might be well. If not, Hutten was 
ready for revolution. Sickingen had soldiers ; with the 
pen and the sword they would rise in rebellion. 

(b) The Diet of Worms meets 28th fanuary, 1521. 
Let us, for a moment, leave these wilder spirits and 
try to understand what it was that the mere sober- 



u6 The Protestant Revolution. PT. II. 

minded of the German people expected from the Diet of 
Worms. 

Happily there is among English State papers a copy 
of ' Agenda,' or as it is headed, ' A memory 

' Agenda' at „ , . , . , . . , 

the Diet of of divers matters to be provided in the pre- 
Worms - sent Diet of Worms.' 

The following are the chief heads, and in these we 
cannot fail to recognize what in former chapters we have 
found to be the real grievances of the German nation. 

(i) To make some ordinance that no man without 
consent of the Emperor and Electors shall for any per- 
To stop pri- sonal cause presume to declare war as in 
vate war. times past. On this the cities and towns are 

determined to stick fast. 

(2) To settle certain disputes between various parties. 
™ , ,. (There be above thirty bishops at variance 

To settle dis- v ...... 

putes. with their temporal lords for their junsdic- 

To provide tion 

central power ( ^ The Emperor to provide a vicar and 

in the Em- XJI r r 

peror's ab- council in his absence. If the Duke of 
Saxony will not take the charge, there will 
be great difficulty in finding one who will please the 
generality, for enmities are so numerous. 

(4) To take notice of the books and descriptions made 
by Friar Martin Luther against the Court of Rome. The 
Martin which Friar Martin, of the Elector of 

Luther. Saxony and other princes is much favoured. 

We have here a list of the chief grievances before 
noticed. (1) The evil of the constant private wars of 
the nobles, especially to the commerce of the towns. 
(2) The constant quarrels between the civil and eccle- 
siastical powers. (3) The want of a central govern- 
ment. (4) The Lutheran complaints against Rome. 
Only the grievances of the poor peasants find no voice ! 



ch. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 117 

Perhaps it was not likely they should. They had no 
friends at court. They had tried to make their voice 
heard sword in hand, and had not their re- 

JNo nope 

bellions been quelled and their standard of for the 
the Bundschuh trodden in the dust ? Had p 633 * ^ 
not even Joss Fritz been lost sight of for years ? It was 
not their silent grievances, but the more noisy ones 
which were to be heard at the Diet. 

The Diet was opened by Charles V. on the 28th 
January, 1521. 

The first business was the appointment of a Council 
of Regency to manage the affairs of the Empire during 
the Emperor's projected absence in Spain. Then came 
the establishment of an imperial chamber, and the 
granting of an impost or tax to defray the expenses of 
the government. 

These political matters were proceeding, when one 
day in February on which a tournament was to be held 
and the Emperor's banner was hoisted Brieffrom 
ready for the lists, the princes were called Rome about 
together to hear read a brief just arrived 
from Rome. This brief exhorted the Emperor to add 
the force of law to the Pope's Bull against Luther by an 
imperial edict. The Emperor had now an opportunity 
of showing that the unity of the Church was as dear to 
him as to the Emperors of old. He wore the sword in 
vain if he did not use it against heretics, who were far 
worse than infidels. So urged the Pope. The Emperor 
had already had Luther's books burned in the Nether- 
lands, and he now produced to the princes an edict 
commanding the rigorous execution of the Bull in 
Germany. He was evidently ready to yield to the 
wishes of the Pope, but it was needful to consult the 
Electors. Some of the Electors were of course not pre- 



n 8 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

pared to accept the proposal of the Empe- 

The Electors v T , r r j . A1 / 

hesitate to ror. In order to persuade them, Aleander, 
edict against the papal nuncio, delivered at another ses- 
Luther. s - on Q f ftiQ Diet a speech nine hours in 

length, in which he inveighed against the heresies of 
Luther, urged that he should be condemned unheard, 
and declared that 'unless the heresy were stopped, 
Germany would be reduced to that frightful state of 
barbarism and desolation which the superstition of 
Mahomet had brought upon Asia.' The Electors 
seemed to be swayed by his eloquence. They cared 
little for Luther's doctrinal heresies, nay, they were 
willing to sacrifice the heretic if the grievances of the Ger- 
man nation against Rome could but be remedied. But 
these grievances were too real to be passed over so easily. 
The Diet, after further delay, appointed a committee 
to draw up a list of these grievances. Meanwhile the 
speech of Aleander had been reported to Hutten,.who 
was staying, as we said, at the castle of Franz von 
Sickingen, a few miles from Worms. It 

Hutten ad- , , , , • i <• -r i » i • 

jures the stirred his wrath to thmk of Luther s being 

toy^eidto 10 condemned unheard. At once, on the spur 
Rome. Q f foe moment, he dipped his pen in gall, 

and wrote letters of violent invective against the papal 
nuncio and the bishops assembled at Worms. One of 
them was addressed to the Emperor, declaring that the 
hope of Germany had been that he would free her from 
the Romish yoke and put an end to the papal tyranny, 
and contrasting with these high hopes ' so great an Em- 
peror, the king of so many peoples, cringing willingly 
to slavery, without waiting even till he is forced.' 

' What ! ' he exclaimed, ' has Germany so ill deserved of thee that 
with thee, not fighting for thee, it must go to the ground ; lead us 
into danger ! Lead us into battle and fire ! Let all nations unite 



CH. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 119 

against us, all peoples rush upon us, so that at least we may prove 
our courage in danger ! Don't let us, cringing and unmanly, with- 
out battle, lie down like women and become slaves ! ' 

Such was the shrill cry of scorn which the course 
things were taking at Worms called forth from Hutten. 

When the list of grievances was brought in at a future 
sitting of the Diet, the debate was resumed. The com- 
plaints against Rome were so strongly put that they 
made a deep impression on the Diet. The Electors re- 
covered from the effects of the nuncio's speech. The 
Prince Electors who sided with Luther urged that 'it 
' would be iniquitous to condemn a man without hearing 
' him, and that the Emperor's dignity and piety were 
'engaged that, should Luther retract his errors, those 
'other matters should be recognized on which he had 
' written so learnedly and Christianly, and that Germany 
' should, by the authority of the Emperor, be freed from 
' the burdens and tyrannies of Rome.' They urged also 
the necessity of granting Luther a safe-conduct, and sum- 
moning him to appear before the Diet to defend himself. 

The Emperor gave way, and on March 6 the sum- 
mons and safe-conduct were issued, and an Luther 
imperial herald sent to bring Luther to summoned to 

r Worms. 

Worms. 

(c) Luther's journey to Worms (152 >i). 

The herald arrived at Wittenberg, and on April 2 
Luther set out for Worms. 

That he went with his mind fully made up not to give 
way or patch up his quarrel with the Pope was shown by 
this. He left in the hands of Lucas Cranach, _ ' 

Luther s 

the great painter of Wittenberg, a series of Antithesis 
wood-cuts prepared by Cranach, with expla- and Anti- 
nations in German at the foot, added by chnst * 



120 The Protesta?it Revolution. Fi. H. 

himself, depicting the Antithesis, or Contrast between 
Christ and the Pope. It was, in his own words, ' a good 
book for the laity.' 

He and Hutten, to widen the circle of their readers, 
and make their appeals to the Fatherland heard by all 
classes, had scattered their pamphlets in German all 
over Germany. Luther now called in the aid of these 
wood-cuts to make his appeal still more popular and 
telling on the multitude. 

Luther had found himself, to his own surprise, following 
in the track of the Hussites of Bohemia. He had openly 
avowed it. Indeed, he seems to have been fond of 
copying some of their acts, perhaps to mark the identity 
of his object with theirs. They had commenced with 
burning the Papal Bull, and so had Luther. It was re- 
corded in the Hussite chronicles that one of the things 
which roused the people in Bohemia against the Pope 
was the painting by tow Englishmen on the walls of an 
inn at Prague of two pictures, one representing Christ 
entering Jerusalem meek and lowly, on an ass ; the 
other the Pope proudly mounted on horseback, glitter- 
ing in purple and gold. Luther and Cranach had im- 
proved upon this example, and produced a series of 
wood-cuts with a precisely similar intention. 

Christ refusing a crown was contrasted with the Pope 
in his tiara. Christ in the crown of thorns, being beaten 
and mocked, was contrasted with the Pope on his throne, 
in all his magnificence. Christ washing the disciples' 
feet was contrasted with the Pope holding out his sacred 
toe to be reverently kissed by his courtiers. Christ heal- 
ing the sick was contrasted with the Pope watching a 
tournament. Christ bending under the burden of his 
Cross was contrasted with the Pope borne in state on 
men's shoulders. Christ driving the money-changers out 



CH. IV. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 121 

of the temple was contrasted with the Pope selling his 
dispensations, and with piles of money before him. 
Christ's humble entry into Jerusalem was contrasted with 
the Pope and his retinue in all their glory, but the road 
they are travelling is shown in the background of the 
picture to lead to hell. Finally, the Ascension of Christ 
is contrasted with the descent of the Pope, in his triple 
crown and papal robes, headlong under an escort of de- 
mons and hobgoblins, into the flames of the bottomless pit. 

That he left behind him this ' good book for the laity,' 
to be published in his absence, was a mark of the defiant 
spirit in which he went to Worms. But underneath this 
spirit of defiance, it must never be forgotten, was a deep 
feeling that he was fighting in the cause of God. ' My 
dear brother,' he said to Melanchthon, in parting, ' if I 
do not come back, if my enemies put me to death, you 
will go on teaching and standing fast in the truth ; if 
you live, my death will matter little.' 

Amidst the tears of his friends, he stepped into the 
covered wagon and commenced his journey. Others, 
too, thought he was going out to his death. Luther sets 
At one place which he passed there was a off for 
priest who kept, hanging up in his study, a 
portrait of Savonarola. He took down the picture from 
the wall and held it up in silence before Luther. Luther 
was moved. 'Stand firm,' said the priest, 'in the truth 
thou hast proclaimed, and God will as firmly stand by 
thee.' The journey took him twelve days. „. . 

■> ■> ■> His journey. 

He had to pass through Erfurt, the scene of 
his mental struggles. He spent a night at the old con- 
vent, and the next day, contrary to the terms of his safe- 
conduct, fearlessly preached in the little church of the 
convent to crowds of people. Earnest tender words 
were his that day, setting forth that true religion is a 



122 The Protestant Revolution. pt. n. 

thing of the heart, and not of ceremonies or penances, 
moving multitudes to tears, and making converts. In 
the midst of it a portion of the crowded building gave 
way, and people were terrified by the crash. In his wild 
imagination he set it down to Satan trying to hinder him. 
All through his journey he seemed to meet with the 
Devil at every step. If he was fatigued and ill, it was 
Satan who brought him low ; but, he wrote from Frank- 
fort to Spalatin, ' Christ lives, and we will enter Worms 
in spite of all the gates of Hell and the powers of the 
air!' 

These things did but prove his sense of the importance 
of the work in which he was engaged. His wild enthu- 
siasm grew out of what was true heroism. The noise, 
the worship of the crowd, the danger and excitement, 
would have turned the head of any mere enthusiast. 
When men are excited they must needs do strange 
things ; and of course on this journey to Worms strange 
things were done. At one place a parody on the Litany 
was produced, like the parodies made by modern revo- 
lutionary agents: — 'Have mercy upon the Germans. 
' From the tyranny of the Roman Pontiff deliver the Ger- 
' mans. From the insatiable avarice of the Romans 
' deliver the Germans. That Martin Luther, that upright 
' pillar of the Christian faith, may soon arrive at Worms, 
'we beseech Thee to hear us. That the zealous German 
* Knight, Ulrich Hutten, the defender of Martin Luther, 
' may persevere in upholding Luther, we beseech Thee to 
' hear us,' and so on. Of course, wherever the procession 
stopped at night the inns were full ; there were crowds, 
Popular vulgar merry-making, and music. Luther 

excitement. himself played upon his flute, and doubtless, 
as his enemies reported, there was no lack of jollity over 
the beer. All this was in the very nature of things. The 



ch. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 123 

point to mark is this — it did not turn the head of 
Luther. 

When news of the enthusiasm occasioned by Luther's 
progress to Worms arrived at the city, the papal party 
became alarmed. Charles V. sent his private confessor 
with messages of compromise, but Luther refused to lis- 
ten till he reached Worms. It was well he did, for the 
safe-conduct was nearly expired, and there was danger 
of treachery. Luther's friends, too, became alarmed. 
Even Spalatin was afraid of his life if he entered Worms, 
and reminded him of the fate of Huss, whose safe-con- 
duct availed him little. Luther's noble reply was, ' Huss 
was burned, but not the truth with him.' He afterwards 
told the Elector of Saxony, when recalling L uther 's he- 
to mind his own marvellous courage, ' The rolc nrmness - 
' Devil saw in my heart that even had I known that 
' there would be as many devils at Worms as tiles upon 
'the house-roofs, still I should joyfully have plunged in 
' among them ! ' 

As he drew near the city, six knights and a troop of 
horsemen of the princes' retinues went out to meet him ; 
and under their escort, the Emperor's herald He enters 
leading the way, and a great crowd drag- orms " 
gling through the streets beside him, in his covered wag- 
on and monk's gown, Luther entered Worms. 

{d) Luther before the Diet. 

The next day, towards evening, he was brought before 
the Diet. The Emperor presided. Six Electors were 
present, and a large number of archbishops, Luther's first 
bishops, and nobility — about two hundred bdS^tET 
m all. There was a pile of Luther's books Diet - 
on the table. 

The official then formally put to Luther two questions: 



124 The Protestant Revolution. PT. n. 

' Do you acknowledge these books to be yours ? ' * Do 
you retract the heretical doctrines they contain ? ' 

Luther replied, ' I think the books are mine ; ' and, 
He asks for after the titles had been read over, ' Yes 
derhis an^ 1 " the books are mine.' As to the second 
swer - question, he said it would be rash for him to 

reply before he had had time for reflection. 

The papal party, who had expected to find Luthef 
raging like a lion, began to think he was going to give 
way. His deportment had been meek and modest. The 
. young Emperor turned to one of his cour- 

him till the tiers and said, ' This man will never make 
ay ' a heretic of me.' Luther's request for time 

was allowed till the next day, and on condition that he 
gave his reply viva voce. 

He was taken back to his inn. People did not know 
what to make of it. Some thought he would retract. 
But, in the din and bustle around him, Luther wrote a 
letter to one of his friends. ' I write to you from the 
' midst of the tumult. ... I confessed myself the author 
' of my books, and said I would reply to-morrow touching 
'my recantation. With Chris fs help, I shall never re- 
1 tract one tittle ! ' 

That night there was excitement and noise in the 
Excitement streets ; quarrels between opposing parties in 
in Worms. ^g cr owd, and soldiers rushing about. 

The next day Luther prepared himself. He was heard 
to pray earnestly, and had his Bible open before him. 
At four o'clock the herald came to bring him before the 
Diet. The streets were full of people, and spectators 
looked down from the tops of the houses as the herald 
led him through passages and private ways to escape 
the crowd. It was dark before they reached the hall, 
and torches were lit. As Luther walked up the hall 



CH. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 125 

several noblemen met him with encouraging words, 
amongst whom was the old General Frundsberg, of 
whom we shall hear more hereafter. 

The hall was crowded, and some time was lost before 
the Princes and Electors were settled in their places. 

The official at length — two hours after 

, , ,. Luther's 

time Opened the proceedings. second ap- 

pearance 

* Martin Luther, yesterday you acknowledged the before the 
books published in your name. Do you retract 

those books or not ? . . . Will you defend all your writings or dis- 
avow some of them ? ' 

Luther replied, in a speech which seemed to his ene- 
mies long and rambling ; but according to his own and 
Spalatin's version of it, the pith of what he said was 
this :— 

'Most serene Emperor! Illustrious Princes, &c, — At the time 
fixed for me yesterday evening I am here, as in duty bound, and I 
pray God that your Imperial Majesty will be pleased p 

to listen, as I hope graciously, to these matters of S p ee ch. 
justice and truth. And should I from inexperience 
omit to give to any one his proper titles, or offend against the 
etiquette of courts, I trust you will pardon me, as one not used to 
them. 

* I beseech you to consider that my books are not all of the same 
kind. 

' (1) There are some in which I have so treated of faith and 
morals that even my opponents admit that they are worthy to be 
read by Christian people. If I were to retract these, what should I 
do but — I alone, among all men — condemn what friends and foes 
alike hold to be truth ! 

' (2) Others of my books are against the papacy and popish 
proceedings — against those whose doctrine and example have wasted 
and ruined Christendom, body and soul. This no one can gainsay, 
for the experience of all men, and the complaints of all, bear 
witness that through the laws of the Pope and the teaching of men 
the consciences of the faithful have been vexed and wronged, and 



126 The Protestant Revolution. PT. II. 

the goods and possessions of this great German nation by faithless 
tyranny devoured and drained — yes, and will without end be 
devoured again ! . . . . Now if I were to retract these, I should 
do nothing but strengthen this tyranny. To its vast unchristian 
influence I should not only open the windows but the door also, 
so that it would rage and spoil more widely and freely than it has 
ever yet dared to do. Under cover of this my recantation, the 
yoke of its shameless wickedness would become utterly unbearable 
to the poor miserable people, and it would be thereby established 
and confirmed all the more if men could say that this had come 
about by the power and direction of your Imperial Majesty, and of 
the whole Roman Empire. Good heavens ! what a great cloak of 
wickedness and tyranny should I be ! 

' (3) The third kind are those books which I have*written against 
some private persons, as, for instance, against those who have 
undertaken to defend the Roman tyranny, and to oppose what I 
thought to be the service of God, against whom I know I have been 
more vehement than is consistent with the character and position of 
a Christian. For I do not set myself up as holy. I do not, however, 
dispute for my own life, but the doctrine of Christ. I cannot 
retract even these books, but I am ready to listen to anyone who, 
can show me wherein in these books I have erred.' 

Here Luther paused. He had spoken in German 
with, as he thought, modesty, but with great fervour and 
determination. The perspiration stood on his brow, he 
was exhausted with the effort of speaking : but when 
the Emperor, who hardly understood German, ordered 
him to repeat what he had said in Latin, after whisper- 
ing to a privy counsellor of the Elector of 

Repeats his to , 

speech in Saxony, who stood by him, he obeyed, and 

repeated his words in the language which 
not only Charles but the papal nuncio could understand. 
And now, as they understood more fully what he said, 
the anger of the papal party was naturally more kindled. 
When he had done, the orator of the Court, betraying 
his hostility by his manner, declared that Luther's am 



CH. IV. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 127 

swerwas not a fair one. They were not there to dispute 
about things that had long ago been settled by Councils. 
He demanded a plain, ungarnished answer. Would he 
recant or not ? 
Luther replied : — 

' Well, then, if your Imperial Majesty requires a plain answer, 
I will give one without horns or teeth ! It is this ; that I must be 
convinced either by the testimony of the Scriptures 
or clear arguments. For I believe things contrary ^^^ t0 
to the Pope and Councils, because it is as clear as 
day that they have often erred and said things inconsistent with 
themselves. I am bound by the Scriptures which I have quoted ; 
my conscience is submissive to the word of God : therefore I may 
not, and will not, recant, because to act against conscience is unholy 
and unsafe. So help me God! Amen.' 

One other attempt was made to get him to yield, but 
in vain, and night coming on, the Diet was adjourned 
to the following morning, to hear the decision of the 
Emperor. The princes retired through the dark streets 
to their several inns ; Luther to his. Frederic of Saxony 
sent for Spalatin and expressed his approval of Luther's 
conduct, except that perhaps he had spoken too boldly. 

Next morning, the 19th April, the Emperor sent to the 
princes a message written by his own hand, in French, 
declaring his intention to proceed against „,, 

» „. The Emperor 

Luther as an avowed heretic, and calling decides again^ 
upon the princes to do the same. An at- 
tempt was then made by the papal party to induce the 
Emperor to rescind the safe-conduct of Luther. The 
precedent of Huss was cited. 'Why should not Luther, 
with Huss, be burned, and the Rhine receive the ashes 
of the one as it had those of the other ? This proposal 
met with strong opposition from the princes, and was 
negatived. 



128 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

But while these discussions were going on in the Diet, 
murmurs were heard out of doors. The proposal to 
withdraw the safe-conduct roused the righteous indigna- 
T tion of men like Hutten to the point almost 

revolution. of frenzy. A placard was found posted on 
the walls of the Town Hall, stating that 400 
knights and 8,000 foot were ready to defend Luther 
against the Romanists. It had no signature, but under- 
neath were written the ominous words, 'Bundschuh, 
Bmidschuh, Bundschuh? Rumours came of murmurs 
and movements of the people in distant parts of Ger- 
many. Franz von Sickingen, a few miles off the city, 
was said to be prepared to take to the sword, and the 
rumours of this inspired terror in the minds of the papal 
party, as it gave some colour of likelihood to the threats 
of Hutten and the placard. 

Under the influence of the fears thus excited, the 
Electors prevailed upon the Emperor to give 
urge delay. a few days more for a further attempt to 
shake Luther's firmness. 

All was done that could be done to shake it, but with- 
out avail. Luther's mind was made up. Let the Pope 
and the Emperor do their worst, he would stand by his 
conscience and the Scriptures. At last, on the 26th of 
r . . April, he received orders from the Emperor 

Luther leaves r 

Worms. to depart on the following day. Twenty-one 

days were given him for his return to Wit- 
tenberg, and on the morrow, escorted as before by the 
imperial herald, Luther left the crowded streets of Worms 
and commenced his journey homewards. 

He left Worms the hero of the German 

What Luther . . 

had done at nation. He single-handed had fought the 

Germany' battle of Germany against the Pope. He 

had hazarded his life for the sake of the 



ch. iv. The Crisis — Refonn or Revolution. 129 

Fatherland. It was this which made Luther's name a 

household word with the Germans for ages to come. 

There is no name in the roll of German historic heroes 

so German, national, and typical as Luther's. 

But Luther fought a battle at Worms not only for 

Germany but Christendom — not only against the Pope, 

but against all powers, religious or secular, 

ii ii- 11 and for 

who seek to lay chains upon the human Christen- 

mind and to enthrall the free belief of the om * 
people. Against the Emperor as well as the Pope, 
against all powers that be, he asserted the right of free- 
dom of conscience. 

(c) Edict against Luther. 

No sooner had Luther left Worms than the papal 
nuncio set himself to work to perfect his triumph. Lu- 
ther had not recanted, therefore the Emperor must issue 
an edict against him. 

The threatenings of Hutten had at first made the 
papal party nervous. They thought that he and Sick- 
ingen had really ready a force of soldiers to Fears of the 
make good their threats. Everywhere the papal part y- 
feeling of the German nation in favour of Luther and 
against the Pope was apparent, and nowhere more so than 
at Worms. They felt themselves on dangerous ground. 

Luther, a few days before leaving the city, wrote an 
address to the German princes, containing an account of 
the proceedings at the Diet. This was soon scattered 
over Germany by the printers, and, just as the minds of 
the Germans were thus excited in favour of Luther, the 
rumour spread from city to city, that in spite of his safe- 
conduct, Luther was captured and had been Rumours of 
cruelly treated. Popular indignation was Luther's 
thus roused ; murmurs rose against the Em- cap 
K 



130 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

peror among the princes as well as the common people. 
Again the papal party feared nothing less than a general 
riot against the emperor and his ecclesiastical advisers, 
headed by Hutten and his friends. 

But at length news came that Luther was safe in 
friendly hands, having been secretly carried off to the 
castle of the Wartburg, in Thuringia, and kept there in 
safety by his own friends. As the days went by, the 
papal party gathering courage, began to laugh at Hutten'a 
threats as bluster, and strained every nerve to hasten on 
the issue of the imperial edict against Luther. 

The Elector of Saxony saw the turn things were tak- 
ing. He saw that Charles was won over by the Pope. 
The Elector He wrote to his brother that it was not only 
ieaves 0ny ' Annas and Caiaphas, but Pilate and Herod 

Worms. also,' that had combined against Luther, 

and not caring to remain where he could do no good, he 
left Worms. 

In fact Aleander, the papal nuncio, had triumphed. 
On May 8 a treaty was signed between Charles V. and 
the Pope, in which they mutually promised 
tween to have the same friends and the same 

andthe ' enemies, the Pope agreeing to side with the 
Pope. Emperor, and to exert all his powers to 

drive the French out of Milan and Genoa, and the Em- 
peror, as the price of the Pope's alliance, promising to 
employ all his powers against Luther and his party. 

Aleander had triumphed, and accordingly prepared an 
edict against Luther. It required some cleverness to get 
The edict the sanction of the Electors. The edict was 

against Lu- produced and read unexpectedly in the Em- 
ther - peror' s own apartments to such of the Elec- 

tors as remained in Worms, and received their hasty 
approval without discussion. The next Sunday, as 



ch. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 131 

Chacl.es V. was in church, Aleander brought the official 
copies, and then and there obtained the imperial signa- 
ture. He took care to date the edict on May 8, 1521, i. 
e., on the day when the treaty with the Pope was signed, 
though it was not really signed till some days after, anq 
in the meantime the Elector of Saxony had left. 

The secretary of Charles V., Valdez, 3. friend of Eras- 
mus, writing from Worms on May 13, 1521, to a Spanish 
correspondent, concludes his letter with these remarka- 
ble words : 

' Here you have, as some imagine, the end of this tragedy, but I 
am persuaded it is not the end but the beginning of it. For 1 
perceive the minds of the Germans are greatly exas- 
perated against the Romish See, and they do not Valdez the 

seem to attach much importance to the Emperor's Emperor's 

secretary, 
edicts ; for since their publication, Luther's books- 
are sold with impunity at every step and corner of the streets and 
market-places. From this you will easily guess what will happen 
when the Emperor leaves. 

' This evil might have been cured with the greatest advantage to 
the Christian Republic, had not the Pontiff refused a genera") 
council, had he preferred the public weal to his own private inter- 
ests. But while he insists that Luther shall be condemned and 
burned, I see the whole Christian Republic hurried to destruction 
unless God himself help us. Farewell.' 

The secretary of Charles V. naturally laid all the 
blame on the Pope. He little knew how much his mas- 
ter also was to blame. The Elector of Saxony was not 
far wrong when he hinted that if the Pope and his nun- 
cios were acting the part of Annas and Caiaphas, 
Charles V. was acting the part of Pilate and Herod. 

Let us try to unravel the entangled skein of political 
motives which influenced his conduct and his treaty 
with the Pope. 



j 32 The Protestant Revolution. pt. 11. 

[f) Political reasons for the decision at Worms.' 

We have seen how the great continental struggle had 
long been between France and Spain, and how Italy 
was the battle-field; how both claimed Naples and 
Milan ; how France had been the first to invade Italy ; 
how France and Spain at one time agreed 
tweenSpain " to share Naples between them ; how France 
and France. gQt Milan> and then> after the two had quar- 
relled over the prey, Spain got Naples ; how then they 
had joined again with the Pope and Germany in the 
league of Cambray against Venice ; and how, lastly, the 
robbers quarrelling again over tha spoil, the Pope united 
Spain, Germany, and England with himself in a holy 
league to drive France out of Italy, and so France again 
lost Milan. Then came the succession of young Francis 
I. to the throne of France, his boast that he would make 
France the master of Europe, as she was wont to be, his 
brilliant campaign of 151 5 in which he gained the battle 
of Marignano against the Swiss, and soon after recovered 
Milan. Then came the struggle for the Empire, and 
the beginning of the ascendancy of Spain in Europe by 
Charles V.'s accession to the German throne. 

In the political combinations which followed, it was 
the fate of Francis to be left out in the cold. Leo X. 
„ . „ was anxious to league himself in close alli- 

Intngues of . _ ° 

princes. ance with Charles v., and by his aid to 

France the drive the French out of Italy. Henry VIII. 

enemyofthe was a * so exceedingly anxious to form a 

Pope Spain close alliance with Charles V. His mar- 

and England. . 

nage with Charles aunt, Catherine of Arra- 
gon, was already a link between England and Spain. 
Henry wanted to bring about another by a contract of 
marriage between Charles V. and the young Princess 



CH. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 133 

(afterwards queen) Mary, although she was already en- 
gaged to the Dauphin of France. Charles V., in his 
turn was equally anxious to form such alliances as would 
strengthen his position against France. He was jealous 
of the conquests of Francis I. in Italy, and as Emperor 
of Germany considered himself entitled to Milan, which 
Francis had conquered. An alliance, therefore, with 
the Pope and England against France was most to his 
purpose, but it did not suit his purpose that Henry VIII. 
should know it. 

All the princes were playing a double game and trying 
to outwit one another. Henry coquetted with Francis in 
order to make Charles fall in with his wishes out of jea- 
lousy. Charles was coquetting both with France and 
England, proposing marriage with a French princess 
while he was negotiating with Henry respecting the Prin- 
cess Mary, and worst of all, while he really intended to 
marry the Infanta of Portugal. He cared far more for 
Spain than he did for Germany, and by this match he 
hoped to unite some day Portugal and Spain. Henry 
VIII. devised an interview with Francis. Charles was 
jealous and came over to England. After this meeting 
with Charles, Henry embarked for France, and met Fran- 
cis on what, from the grandeur of the preparations, was 
called the ' Field of the Cloth of Gold.' Immediately 
afterwards he again met Charles at Gravelines, and did 
his best to secure his object with Charles while he kept 
Francis in the dark. But Charles chose a little longer to 
play fast and loose. 

In the meantime the Pope also was playing a double 
game. Whether to ally himself with Francis, who was 
preparing his army for another descent upon Italy, or 
with Charles V. and Henry VIII. against Francis, he 
kept an open question, though his preference was for the 



134 The Protestant Revolution. pt. II. 

latter plan, if only he could bring Charles V. to his 
terms ; the chief of them being that Charles should help 
him to put down the heretic Luther. 

The course which things took at the Diet of Worms 
was ruled by these political intrigues. 

The papal party triumphed. The Emperor, as we 
have seen, concluded an alliance on May 8 with the Pope 
against France and against Luther. 

The consequence was that Europe was to be given 
over once more to the ambitions and wars of its rival 
„ r princes. All chances of reform, for the pre- 

Reform re- r r 

fused by sent, were gone. The Diet of Worms came 

poVers'from to an end without having accomplished the 
motives work which Germany expected from it. 

Worst of all, the Emperor, instead of siding 
with Germany against the Pope, had chosen for his pri- 
vate purposes to side with the Pope against Germany. 

It is true a council of regency had been established, 
with the Elector of Saxony at its head, to manage the 
affairs of the Empire while the Emperor was busied with 
quelling a rebellion in Spain, and with his wars in Italy. 
But no decisive steps had been taken to stop those private 
wars which were the curse of Germany, and of which the 
cities so bitterly complained. No decisive steps had been 
taken to remedy the ecclesiastical grievances of which 
the princes complained. The grievances of the much 
enduring peasantry had not even been talked of. And 
as the worst sign of the times, Luther had been con- 
demned by both Pope and Emperor. 

The fears of Erasmus were fulfilled, and his bitter 
words justified by the result. ' Ecclesiastical hypocrites 
reign in the courts of princes . . . The Pope and Prin- 
ces treat the people as cattle in the market.' 

The reform, both of the Oxford and of the Wittenberg 



ch. v. Revolution. _ 135 

Reformers, had been refused by the ruling powers. 
There was nothing- left but revolution. 



CHAPTER V. 

REVOLUTION. 

(a) The Prophets of Revolution {1522). 

The edict of the Emperor issued at the Diet of Worms 
was published all over Germany. But the papal party 
were astonished to find how very little peo- „ , , , 

* Popular feel- 

pie thought of it. The Germans thought a ing against the 

great deal more of the bold conduct of Lu- 
ther. So that the end of it was that the edict was treated 
with very much the same neglect as the Pope's Bull. 
Luther's books were burned in some places under the 
eye of the Emperor, Everywhere else they were read all 
the more. 

And another thing happened which the papal party 
had not foreseen. They had for the moment silenced 
Luther. He was safe in the castle of the Luther in the 
Wartbnrg, and silent, too, albeit he was Wartbur s- 
hard at work at what would do more to spread the spirit 
of reform than anything else, viz. translating the Bible 
into the mother tongue of the Fatherland. 

Meanwhile the absence of Luther from his wonted 
place at Wittenberg did not take away the firebrand as 
they thought it would, but put it in the hands T , 

e 1 1 T T 1 > 1 •-, 1 In his absence? 

of the mob. In Luther s absence wilder wilder spirit 
spirits came to the top. Monks left the con- toke the leacL 
vents and went to trades. Under the leadership of 
Carlstadt, the form of public worship was changed. Ex- 
cited and half-crazy men, carried away by their zeal, set 



136 The Protestant Revolution. pt. 11. 

themselves up as prophets and preached strange doc* 
trines. 

At Zwickau, under the range of the Erzgebirge, south 
of Wittenberg, near Bohemia, lived a weaver of the 
name of Claus Storch. He and some of his comrades 
fancied they were inspired. They mistook their own ex- 
cited imaginations for messages from 
?Zw P ickau? tS heaven. They wanted no priests, for they 
were themselves prophets, no Bible, for they 
were themselves inspired, and they went about preach- 
ing violent changes, and exciting the crowds who lis- 
tened to them to violent deeds. 

Driven away from Zwickau by the authorities, some of 
them came to Wittenberg, where the people were already 
making great changes under the leadership of Carlstadt. 
Carlstadt was carried away by their zeal, and so were the 
people. Riots were raised. People went about smash- 
ing the images in the churches, and even Melanchthon, 
in Luther's absence, was half inclined to believe in the 
prophets, though they preached the uselessness of learn- 
ing and universities. 

These things came to the ear of Luther in his retreat 
at the Wartburg. He at once saw how all this delusion 
T , and madness would injure the cause of the 

Luther comes . J 

back to Wit- Reformation. At the risk of his life he left 
his place of concealment. He suddenly ap- 
peared at Wittenberg in his old pulpit. He entreated 
his old flock to calm their excitement ; and not without 
avail. After ten months' absence, the familiar sound of 
his voice soothed their passions. They recognized him 
once more as their leader. 

The prophets came to visit him — and this is a proof 
of their sincerity — expecting him at once to admit their 
claims. Luther did not doubt that they were inspired, 



ch. v. Revolution. 137 

but warned them lest their inspiration should and con f ronts 
come from Spirits of Evil. One of them, the prophets, 
with the voice and tones of an enthusiast, stamping 
his feet, and striking his hands on the table, gave vent 
to his horror at the suggestion ; and then, gathering 
up his dignity, in a tone which almost shook the com- 
mon sense of Luther, said solemnly, ' That thou mayst 
know, O Luther, that I am inspired by the Spirit of God, 
I will tell thee what is passing in thy mind.' And then as 
Luther, really for the moment half carried away by his 
impressive manner, was beginning to waver, ' It is * (he 
added), * That thou art ready to think that my doctrine 
is true.' To which Luther, suddenly re- His common 
covering himself replied, ' The Lord rebuke sense P revails - 
thee, Satan ! The God whom I worship will soon put a 
stop to your spirits.' And with these parting words he 
dismissed the prophets of Zwickau. 

Order was restored at Wittenberg. The Scriptures 
were again acknowledged as the rule of faith, and be- 
fore the end of the year the New Testa- m 

,. • ^ The prophets 

ment was published in the German tongue, driven from 
The Lutheran Reformation was severed for ' en erg ' 
ever from the wilder reforms of Carlstadt and the 
prophets of Zwickau ; and the latter were soon driven 
from Wittenberg, to spread their doctrines in other 
places where there was no Luther to withstand them. 

One of the disciples of Storch at Zwickau was Miinzer, 
but instead of going to Wittenberg, he went 
first into Bohemia, and then all over that becomes the 
part of Germany where Joss Fritz had been, of the 6 
He became very soon the prophet of the P easantrv - 
peasantry. 

We must look even upon Miinzer as honest and 
sincere, though wild. He thought himself inspired, and 



138 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

preached like a prophet. Along with many reforms 
which Luther also urged, he claimed for the people the 
right of having divine worship performed in their own 
language instead of in the Latin of the priests. He 
preached a crusade against all who opposed the gospel, 
and urged a resort to the sword if preaching would not 
do. Driven from city to city, he went more and more 
among the peasants ; and who shall blame him if he 
took up their grievances ? Was it not natural ? His 
own father, it is said, had fallen a victim to a quarrel 
with his feudal lord. He began to think himself the 
chosen messenger of heaven to avenge their wrongs ; 
and as he preached from place to place amongst the 
peasantry, and others like him followed in his track, it 
was not strange if it stirred up again in the minds of the 
disciples of Joss Fritz recollections of the days of the 
Bundschuh. 

(0) The end of Sickingen and Hutten, ( 1 523) . 

The council of regency appointed at the Diet of 
Worms to represent the Empire during the Emperor's 
absence in Spain (whither he had gone to quell a rebel- 
lion of his subjects) was made up of princes who had 
more or less sympathy with Luther. 

Frederic cl Saxony was at the head of it. It was the 
nearest approach to a central government which had 
_ _ ., been formed. It was thoroughly German 

The Council . . . , 

of Regency and national in spirit, and aimed at tho- 
Eiectorof roughly national objects. It aimed not at 

ftrfveTto carrying out the edict against Luther, but at 

avert the obtaining from future diets those reforms 

which had been refused at Worms. It 
aimed at putting down private wars and the establish- 
ment of public peace. 



ch. v. Revolution. 139 

But it had no power at its back to carry out its inten- 
tions. Its efforts to obtain something like union among 
the powers of Germany in the work of reform were 
fruitless ; and so were its efforts to put down private 
wars. 

Knights like Franz von Sickingen saw in it an attempt 
of the princes to put down the influence of their order. 
Its attempt to obtain the means to pay for national ob- 
jects by a system of customs — duties on luxuries im- 
ported into Germany from abroad — was tmeets 
taken by the merchants of the towns to be with oppo- 
an invasion of their rights. So it was un- 
popular and powerless, though its intentions were 
good. 

Its powerlessness to preserve the public peace was 
soon shown in a great private war which was waged by 
Franz von Sickingen in 1 522-3 against the |^^^ 
Archbishop of Treves. The knight besieged takes to the 
Treves with his army of 5,000 foot-soldiers 
and 1,500 knights, and declared that he came to bring 
the people freedom from the Pope and priests, and to 
punish the archbishop for his sins against God and the 
Emperor. 

What could be a stronger example to the peasantry 
to take to the sword than such an act of the popular 
knight ! 

He counted upon the people of the town aiding him 
from within the walls, but was disappointed. The city 
held out till some neighbouring princes came to its rescue 
with an army of 30,000 men. On their approach, Franz 
retired to his castle of Landshut, there not being time to 
reach that of Ebernburg. There he was himself be- 
sieged. The cannon of the princes were powerful enough 
to batter down the solid walls, which before the use of 



*40 The Protesta?it Revolution. pt. ii. 

but is defeated artiller y would have been impregnable. He 
and killed. held out for months, till at last a solid tower 

fell into a heap of ruins, and a breach was 
made in the walls. Franz himself was wounded and 
dying when his conquerors entered the castle. They 
upbraided him for disturbing the peace of the Empire. 
'I am going,' he said, as he lay upon the floor, dying, 
Hutten's death. ' to render an account to a greater than the 

Emperor;' and soon after he expired. His 
friend Hutten died in the same year, while trying to urge 
other knights to aid Sickingen, and this was the end of 
the knights of Ebernburg Castle. 

They had threatened to reform the Empire by the 
sword. The peasantry had looked to them as their best 
knightly friends. They had done much by their pens 
and swords, their voice and example, to stir up warlike 
The peasantry feelin g among the peasantry, but their end 
fr°om n the inS ° ame before the peasants had got any help 
knights. from them. In the meantime it was also 

clear that the council of regency was unable 
to preserve the public peace, as well as to bring about 
the needed reform. 

If help was to come neither from the Emperor and the 
council of regency, nor from the knights, where were the 
peasantry to turn next? Was not the time ripe for 
rebellion ? 

[c) The Peasants' War (1525). 
We must turn again to the map on which are marked 
the districts where lay the smouldering embers of the 
Bundschuh, waiting only for the match to light them up 
again. On the opposite map are marked the districts in 
which, one after another, the explosions came. The 
connexion between the two maps will be seen at a 



ch. v. Revolution. 141 

glance. Joss Fritz had kept the embers alive by his se- 
cret work in Swabia. The expulsion of Carlstadt from 
Wittenberg had sent him into the towns on the Rhine 
and in Franconia to stir up discontent and a spirit of re- 
bellion, not only against Rome, the priests and monks, 
but also against Luther, through whose in- 
fluence he had been expelled. Miinzer had MUr-ersth-up 
been driven from city to city, and thence 
into Southern Germany, to carry on the 
work of stirring up rebellion. 

The train was indeed laid, and in November, 1524, 
the match was put to it in the very places where it 
was laid the deepest. The match was a little thing. 
The much-enduring peasantry of Swabia, and most of 
all, those about the Boden See (Lake Constance) needed 
but the last straw to break the back of their endurance. 
It was a holiday, and the peasants on the estates of the 
Count von Liipfen were resting at home or taking the 
day for work on their own land. Orders came from the 
Count that they should turn out and gather 

.,,.,,- f . i /— i t Insurrection 

snail-shells for the folk at the Castle. It was of the peasant- 
the very littleness of the thing which made ** in Swabia " 
it so unbearable. They rose up in arms, and so did 
their neighbours in the valleys round. Soon all Swabia 
was in insurrection. 

The council of regency sent ambassadors to mediate 
between the peasants and their lords of the Swabian 
League. But it was of no use. They had not power to 
keep the public peace. Neither party listened to them. 
The peasants put forth twelve articles in which they 
stated their demands. Here, in brief, is a list of 
them. A mere glance will show that they were the old 
demands of the days of the Bundschuh, with a few 
additions. 



142 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

1. The right to choose their own pastors. 

2. They would pay tithe of corn, out of which the pastors 

should be paid, the rest going to the use of the 
Their twelve parish. — But small tithes, i.e., of the pro- 
articles, duce of animals, every tenth calf, or pig, or 

egg, and so on, they would not pay. 

3. They would be free, and no longer serfs and bondmen. 

4. Wild game and fish to be free to all. 

5. Woods and forests to belong to all for fuel. 

6. No services of labour to be more than were required 

of their forefathers. 

7. If more service required, wages must be paid for it. 

8. Rent, when above the value of the land, to be prop- 

erly valued and lowered. 
9. Punishments for crimes to be fixed. 

10. Common land to be again given up to common use. 

11. Death gifts (i. e., the right of the lord to take the best 

chattel of the deceased tenant) to be done away 
with. 

12. Any of these articles proved to be contrary to the 

Scriptures or God's justice, to be null and void. 
From this list of most substantial grievances we may 
well gather what the peasants were aiming at. We see 
Not likely to now tne Y aimed, like simple men, at the re- 
be granted by mQ val of the practical grievances and hard- 

either Pope, r . ° , . . . 

nobles, or ships of their life. But their demands were 

Luther. not at all j^ely to be granted. For instance, 

if they had the choice of pastors they would choose men 
like Munzer, and Carlstadt, and Storch, and perhaps 
even wilder spirits than these, so that neither the Pope 
nor Luther would be likely to concede that demand. 
Nor, of course, would the proud feudal lords like to lose 
their game and the forced labour of their serfs, and to 
meet their peasants on equal terms as free men, any more 



ch. v. Revolution. 143 

than the slave-holders of America liked to have slavery 
abolished. We may guess, too, how the ecclesiastics 
would tremble to hear of their small tithes being taken 
away, and other pastors being chosen instead of 
themselves. 

Had the feudal lords granted proper and fair reforms 
long ago, they would never have heard of these twelve 
articles. But they had refused reform, and they now had 
to meet revolution. And they knew of but one way of 
meeting it, namely, by the sword. 

The lords of the Swabian League sent their army of 
foot and horsemen under their captain, S wabian 
George Truchsess. The poor peasants could JJJJJfj 
not hold out against trained soldiers and cav- April 1525. 
airy. Two battles on the Danube, in which thousands 
of peasants were slain, or drowned in the river, and a 
third equally bloody one in Algau, near the Boden See, 
crushed this rebellion in Swabia, as former rebellions 
had so often been crushed before. This was early in 
April 1525. 

But in the meantime the revolution had spread further 
north. In the valley of the Neckar a body of 6,000 
peasants had come together, enraged by the news of the 
slaughter of their fellow peasants in the south of Swabia. 
The young Count von Helfenstein, a friend of the Arch- 
duke Ferdinand, who had married a natural daughter of 
the late Emperor Maximilian, lived at the castle in the 
town of Weinsberg, in this district. He seems to have so 
far lost his head in these days of terror as to have cut the 
throats of some peasants who met him on 
the road. This enraged them the more. The on the 
town and castle were stormed and taken by April * r ' 
the peasants, under their leaders, Florian I52S - 
Geyer, Wendel Hipler, and Little Jack Rohrbach. The 



1 44 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

Count offered a large sum of money for a ransom, but 
the stern reply of the peasants was, ' he must die though 
he were made of gold.' 

While the peasants were plundering the castle, the 
monastery, and the houses of the priests, the leaders 
held a council. Hipler advised moderation. He hoped 
that the smaller lords would, after all, side with the pea- 
sants. But Little Jack was a man of another kind. In 
the dead of night he held a council of his own, and 
doomed every knight and noble in Weinsberg to imme- 
diate death. As day was breaking the Count and other 
noble prisoners were led forth, surrounded by a circle 
of pikes with their steel points inward. The tears and 
pleadings of the Countess, with her babe in her arms, 
availed nothing. The peasants stood in two opposite 
ranks, with a passage between the points of their pikes. 
A piper of the Count mockingly led the way, inviting 
his late master to follow on a dance of death. The 
Count and nobles were compelled to follow. The ranks 
closed upon them, and they were soon pierced to death. 
A wild peasant woman stuck her knife into the Count's 
body, and smeared herself with blood. And so, un- 
™ , known to the other leaders and to the mas- 

The peasants 

revenge for ses of the peasantry, ' Little Jack,' on that 
slaughter. terrible morning, had revenged the thou- 

sands of his comrades slain by the Swabian 
lords, blood for blood. 

A yell of horror was raised through Germany at the 
news of the peasants' revenge. No yell had risen when 
the Count cut peasants' throats, or the Swabian lords 
slew thousands of peasant rebels. Europe had not yet 
learned to mete out the same measure of justice to noble 
and common blood. But the eye of history cannot so be 
blinded. It records that about a month after, Truch- 



CH. v. Revolution. 145 

sess, the captain of the Swabian League, The retaliation 
came northwards, and fell upon this band of the nobles, 
of peasants with his more disciplined sol- ay I525 ' 
diers and horsemen. One night, after a bloody battle, 
in which several thousand peasants were slain, the piper 
of Weinsberg was recognized amongst the prisoners- — he 
who had piped to the dance of death at the murder of the 
Count von Helfenstein. Truchsess and the new Count 
von Helfenstein, who was with him, had him fastened 
with an iron chain about two feet long to an apple tree. 
With their own hands they and other nobles helped to 
build up a circular pile of wood round their victim, and 
then they set fire to the pile. It was night ; and amid 
the groans of wounded and dying peasants on the battle- 
field around them, and the drunken revelry of the camp, 
was heard the laughter of these nobles as they watched 
their victim springing shrieking from point to point of the 
fiery circle within which he was slowly roasted to death. 
Such was the revenge of nobles upon peasants. 

But the revolution spread, and the reign of terror 
spread with it. North and east of the valley of the 
Neckar, among the little towns of Franconia, , 

1 • 1 n r i ■,.* • -11 i Insurrection in 

and in the valleys of the Maine, other bands Franconia. 
of peasants, mustering by thousands, de- 
stroyed alike cloisters and castles. Two hundred of 
these lighted the night with their flames during the few 
weeks of their temporary triumph. And here another 
feature of the revolution became prominent. The little 
towns were already, under the preaching of Carlstadt 
and such as he, passing through an internal „ , . . 

r ° ° . Revolution in 

revolution. The artisans were rising against the towns of 
the wealthier burghers, overturning the town r ' : 
councils, and electing committees of artisans in their 
place, making sudden changes in religion, putting down 



146 The Protestant Revoacuon. pt. 11. 

the Mass, unfrocking priests and monks, and in fact, in 
the interests of what they thought to be the gospel, turn- 
ing all things upside down. 

A few extracts from the diary of a citizen of the free 
imperial fortified town of Rothenburg, on the Tauber, 
may serve to fix on the mind a clear impression of the 
Peasants' War, as it seemed to a citizen of a Franconian 
town during the course of the events which he noted in 
his log-book in this terrible year 1525. 

March 19. — The Carlstadt sect being favoured by 
citfzen°of a tne magistrates, Carlstadt himself came to Rothen- 

Rothenburg. burg, preached here, and wanted to become a citizen. 

March 21. — Thirty or forty peasants bought a kettle-drum and 
went about proudly, insolently, and mischievously, up and down 
the city. 

March 23. — About 400 peasants assembled. 

March 24. — All citizens were called to the Rathhaus and enjoined 
to stand by the honourable council. Only twenty-six do so ! The 
rest elect a committee of thirty-six. Messengers are sent to the 
peasants to inquire their plans. The peasants replied that they were 
not all collected yet. Letters come from Markgraf Casimir, and 
are read to the people, offering help, and to come in person to make 
peace. Some of the people treated the message with scorn and 
laughter. 

This evening, between five and six, the head of the image of 
Christ on the Cross is struck off, the arms broken and the pieees 
knocked about the churchyard. 

March 25. — The committee of thirty-six frighten the council 
into submission. 

Ma.rch 26, Sunday. — The priest driven from the altar and his 
mass book thrown down. The peasants deploy themselves before 
the Galgen-thor. 

March Tl. — The priest insulted, and his book thrown down 
whilst performing mass. 

March 28.— 700 peasants assembled, and force other peasants to 
join them. 



ch. v. Revolution. 147 

March 31. — The peasants have increased to 2,000. Lorenz 
Knobloch having promised to be a captain, has gone out to them. 
Messengers from the Imperial Council came to make peace, but 
without result. 

April 4. — The oil lamps thrown down during the sermon. The 
peasants go about plundering cupboards and cellars. 

April 8, Good Friday. — The service done away. No one sang 
or read. But Dr. Drechsel preached against emperor, king, princes 
and lords, spiritual and temporal, for hindering the word of 
God. 

April 10, Easter Day. — Hans Rothfuchs called the sacrament 
idolatry. No service. 

April 11. — Dr Carlstadt preached against the sacrament. At 
night the Kupferzell (cloister) sacked by some millers, and tables 
and pictures thrown into the Tauber. 

April 12. — Declarations made that priests may marry. 

April 13. — Dr. Carlstadt preached again against the sacraments 
and ceremonies. 

April 14. — Some women run up and down the streets with forks, 
pikes, and sticks, making a row and declaring that they will plunder 
all priests' houses. 

April 15. — Priests are obliged to become citizens for safety. 
Every citizen to give a gulden towards the watch, also take his turn 
at working at the fortifications. 

April 18. — The peasants demand 200 men and 100 long spears, 
a culverin, heavy field-pieces, and two tents. They are refused. 
The peasants reply that some citizens had promised help ; therefore 
they now demand it. 

April 23. — The peasants are told they shall have a reply in 
writing. 

April 28. — Corn given out, but only some take it. Knobloch 
torn to pieces by the peasants, and they pelted one another with the 
pieces. The peasants have been heard to say that they would soon 
see what the Rothenburgers were going to do ! 

May 1. — In the night they burned the cloister of E., plundered 
another, and burned the castle of C. 

May 8. — The people called together by the great bell in the 
parish church to hear a proposal of the Markgraf Casimir to come 



148 The Protestafit Revolution. PT. II. 

with his lady and jewels to Rothenburg ; and on the other hand to 
consider whether to send to the peasantry or not. 

May 10. — Three neighbouring cities have gone over to the pea- 
sants. They want Rothenburg to join them, too. At 6 o'clock 
people are called together again, and the majority decide to send 
artillery and spears to the peasants. 

May 12. — More monasteries are sacked. Twelve kildeikins of 
wine plundered by the people and drunk. 

May 15. — Florian Geyer (one of the peasants' leaders) in the 
parish church proposes articles of alliance with the peasants for 101 
years. Demanded that the committee and people should by oath 
and vow league themselves with the peasants. Which was done, 
although against the grain to some. Thus to-day Rothenburg has 
gone over from the Empire to the peasants ! A gallows was erected 
in the market-place in token of this brotherhood, and as a terror to 
evil-doers. About 5 o'clock tents, wagons, powder are got ready 
and taken to the camp of the peasants, with intent to storm the 
castle of Wurtzburg. 

300 peasants who went up on May 9 to storm the castle of 
Wurtzburg were all killed, part by the stones, part shot, part slain 
— taken like birds ! (So the castle still held out.) 

Casimir of Brandenburg is marching with forces to chastise the 
peasants. 

May 19. — He burns four towns. Four peasants at L. are 
beheaded and seven have their fingers cut off. At N. eighteen 
citizens beheaded. 

May 27. — 4,000 peasants are slain in the valley of the Tauber by 
the allied powers. (The combined forces of the nobles were now 
joined by Truchsess, who had been victorious over the Swabian 
peasants.) 

May 29. — 8,000 more peasants slain by the allies. Three mes- 
sengers are sent from Rothenburg to Markgraf Casimir, carrying a 
red cross and fervently begging for mercy. No surrender would 
be accepted but on ' mercy or no mercy.' All citizens, clergy and 
laity, to pay seven florins for Blood and Fire Money, or to be 
banished thirty miles out of the city. The city to provide some tons 
of powder. 

June 2. — Wurtzburg retaken by the Bund. 



ch. v. Revolution. 149 

June 24. — Mass said again, after thirteen weeks' interruption. 

June 29. — Markgraf Casimir came to Rothenburg with 800 
horse, 1,000 foot, 200 wagons well equipped with the best artillery, 
which are placed in the market-place. 

June 30. — All citizens called by herald and ordered to assemble 
in the market-place, and form a circle under guard of soldiers with 
spears. It was announced that the Rothenburgers had revolted 
from the Empire and joined the peasants, and had forfeited life, 
honour, and goods. The Markgraf and many nobles were present. 
Twelve citizens were called out by name, and beheaded on the spot. 
Their bodies were left all day in the market-place. Several had 
fled who otherwise would have been beheaded. 

July 1. — Eight more beheaded. 

It was during the Franconian rebellion that the pea- 
sants chose the robber knight Goetz von Berlichingen as 
their leader. It did them no good. More than a robber 
chief was needed to cope with soldiers used to war. The 
failure of the Franconian rebel peasants was inevitable, 
and the wild vigour with which they acted in the mo- 
ments of their brief power did but add to the cruelty 
with which they were crushed and punished when the 
tide of victory turned against them. 

While all this was going on in the valleys , 

r 1 *r • 1 -1 ■ -i 1 •. / Insurrection 

of the Maine, the revolution had crossed the in Eisass and 

Rhine into Eisass and Lothringen, and the dovm™May) 

Palatinate about Spires and Worms, and in I52 $> 

the month of May had been crushed in blood, as in 

Swabia and Franconia. South and east, in , „ 

Bavana, in the Tyrol, and in Carmthia ria, the Tyrol, 

also, castles and monasteries went up in 

flames, and then, when the tide of victory turned, the 

burning houses and farms of the peasants lit up the 

night and their blood flowed freely. 

Meanwhile Munzer who had done so much to stir up 



- r 5° 



The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 



the peasantry in the south to rebel, had gone north into 
Thuringia, and headed a revolution in the 

M i.i nzer heads ■* r -ii j -t t 

an insurrection town of Mulhausen, and became a sort ot 
in Thuringia. Savonarola of a ma dder kind, believing 

himself inspired, talking of his visions, uttering prophe- 
cies, denouncing vengeance on all who opposed what he 
believed to be the gospel. He exercised over the citi- 
zens something of the influence that Savonarola had 
done in Florence. His intense earnestness carried them 
away. They could not help believing in him and re- 
garding him with awe. For a while the rich fed the 
poor, and under his eye there was almost a community 
of goods. But Miinzer, not content with visions and his 
prophetic office, madly appealed to the sword. When 
he heard of the revolution in Swabia, he seemed to 
sniff the breeze like a war-horse. He issued a proclama- 
tion to the peasantry round about : 

Arise ! fight the battle of the Lord ! On ! on ! on ! Now is the 
time ; the wicked tremble when they hear of you. Be pitiless ! 
Heed not the groans of the impious ! Rouse up the 
prodama- towns and villages ; above all, rouse up the miners 

tion. of the mountains ! On ! on ! on ! while the fire is 

burning ; on while the hot sword is yet reeking with the slaughter ! 
Give the fire no time to go out, the sword no time to cool ! Kill 
all the proud ones : while one of them lives you will not be free from 
the fear of man ! While they reign over you it is no use to talk of 
God! . . . Amen. 

Given at Muhlhausen, 1525. Thomas Miinzer, servant of God 
against the wicked. 

These were some of the words which were meant to 
wake up echoes in the hearts of the neighbouring miners 
of Mansfeld, among whom the kindred of Luther 
dwelt ! 

This was what had come of the prophets of Zwickau 



ch. vi. Revolution. 151 

giving up their common sense and following visions and 
inspirations ! 

But the end was coming. The princes, with their dis- 
ciplined troops, came nearer and nearer. What could 
Munzer do with his 8,000 peasants ? He pointed to a 
rainbow and expected a miracle, but no miracle came. 
The battle, of course, was lost. 5,000 peasants lay dead 
upon the field near the little town of Frankenhausen, 
where it was fought. 

Munzer fled and concealed himself in a bed, but was 
found and taken before the princes, thrust D eat h f 
into a dungeon, and afterwards beheaded. Munzer. 

So ended the wild career of this misguided, fanatical, 
self-deceived, but yet, as we must think, earnest and in 
many ways heroic spirit. We may well believe that he 
was maddened by the wrongs of the peasantry into what 
Luther called a 'spirit of confusion.' 

The prince and nobles now everywhere prevailed over 
the insurgent peasants. 

Luther, writing on June 21, 1525, says: — 

' It is a certain fact, that in Franconia 11,000 peasants have been 
slain. Markgraf Casimir is cruelly severe upon his peasants, who 
have twice broken faith with him. In the Duchy of Wurtemberg, 
6,000 have been killed ; in different places in Swabia, 10,000. It is 
said that in Alsace the Duke of Lorraine has slain 20,000. Thus 
everywhere the wretched peasants are cut down.' 

The struggle extended into Styria and Carinthia, 
wbere there had been risings before, and lingered on 
longest in the Tyrol. It was not till Truchsess was aided 
by the General George Frundsberg, the old general who 
had shaken hands with Luther in the Diet of Worms, 
that victory was secured to the higher powers. 

Before the Peasants' War was ended at least 100,000 



152 The Protestant Revolution. pt. 11. 

perished, or twenty times as many as were put to death 
in Paris during the Reign of Terror in 1793. 

So ended the peasants' revolution. For two hundred 
and fifty years more the poor German peasantry must 
bear the yoke of feudal serfdom. They must wait till, 
in the beginning of the nineteenth century, German 
statesmen, awakened by the French Revolution, saw 
the necessity of preventing another Peasants' War by 
granting a timely reform. 

Luther, throughout the Peasants' War, sided with the 
ruling powers. He was firm as a rock in opposing the 
, . , use of the sword against the civil power, 
of Luther The reform he sought was by means of the 

PeSfnts' 6 civil power; and in order to clear himself 
War - and his cause from all participation in the 

wild doings of the peasantry, he publicly exhorted the 
princes to crush their rebellion. The peasants thought 
that in Luther (himself a peasant) they should have 
found a friend, but they were bitterly disappointed. He 
hounded on the princes in their work of blood. 

That Luther should be bitter against Miinzer and the 
wild prophets of revolution was but natural. He had 
seen the end from the beginning ; he had left his retreat 
in the Wartburg four years before to quell the tumults 
at Wittenberg. Driven out of Wittenberg the prophets 
had become madder still. No doubt Europe owed 
much to the right-mindedness of Luther in setting his 
face against a resort to the sword in the cause of reli- 
gious reform. Yet one cannot sympathize with Luther's 
harsh treatment of the peasantry and their misguided 
leaders. It cannot be denied that to some extent this 
revolution had grown up from the dragon's teeth that he 
himself had sown. There was a time when he himself 
had used wild language and done wild deeds. Eras- 



ch. v. Revolution. 153 

mus had predicted that all Europe would be turned 
upside down in a universal revolution ; and had it not 
come to pass ? The monks blamed Erasmus and the 
new learning ; Erasmus blamed the wildness of Luther ; 
Luther blamed the wilder prophets. Who __ 

r r Who was 

was to blame ? History will not lay blame really to 
on Erasmus or Luther, or on the wilder 
prophets, or on the misguided peasantry, but on the 
higher powers whose place it was to have averted revo- 
lution by timely reforms. It was their refusal of reform 
which was the real cause of revolution. It was the con- 
spiracy of the higher powers at the Diet of Worms to 
sacrifice the common weal to their own ambitious ob- 
jects on which history will lay the blame of the Pea- 
sants' War. 

In the meantime let us not forget that there was one 
at least of the higher powers who had no share in the 
blame — one of them who had shown himself able to 
sacrifice his own ambition to the common weal, who 
had worked silently and hard for reform — Death of the 
the good Elector Frederic of Saxony. As |^xon rof 
the peasant rebellion under Miinzer was May 1525. 
going on in Thuringia, on the threshold of Saxony, he 
lay dying. He had no revengeful feelings. He did 
not urge on the slaughter of peasantry like Luther. He 
wrote to his brother, Duke John, who succeeded him as 
Elector, and who was gone with the army, to act pru- 
dently and leniently. If the peasants' turn had really 
come to rule, God's will be done ! Only his servants 
were with him. 'Dear children,' he said to them, 'if I 
have offended any of you, forgive me, for the love of 
God; we princes do many things to the poor people 
that we ought not to do ! ' 

Soon after he received the sacrament, and died. 



154 The Protestant Revolution. pt. II. 

(d) The Sack of Rome {1527). 

Now let us see what was the result to the higher 
Alliance of powers themselves of the secret treaty of 
SeE°mpe a ror Worms, May 8, 1 52 1, by which the Pope 
against France. anc l Emperor were to join their forces 
against France, and to secure which the interests of the 
German people were deliberately sacrificed. 

Henry VIII. of England soon joined the alliance 
against France. He had secret reasons to be mentioned 
Henry VIII. hereafter for keeping on good terms with 
ioins k - Charles V. and the Pope, and so had his 

minister Cardinal Wolsey. Henry was tempted also 
with the prospect of winning back the English provinces 
in France, while Wolsey was flattered by the promises 
of Charles V. to do all he could to get him elected Pope 
on the next vacancy. 

The first skirmishes took place between Charles V. 
and Francis I. in the north, but with no decisive results. 
Meanwhile the allied army in Italy was strengthened and 
that of France weakened by the Swiss soldiers under the 
pay of France being withdrawn, and Swiss recruits ac- 
cepting imperial pay. The armies were soon in motion, 
and on Nov. 25, 1521, Leo X. received tidings that the 
Pope Leo X. allied army had triumphantly entered the 
dies, 1521. c j t y f Milan, but while the rejoicings at 
Rome in celebration of their triumph were still going on, 
the Pope suddenly died, on December 1, not without 
suspicion of poison. 

To the surprise of everyone the Emperor's old tutor 
. „ . TTT was now elected Pope under the title of 

Adrian VI. r 

Adrian VI. Charles V. had not used his 
influence to promote the success of Wolsey. Adrian was 
a Spaniard — a nominal governor in Spain while Ximenes 
really governed — and was more likely to serve Spanish 



ch. v Revolution. 155 

interests than the wily English minister. Adrian was a 
sternly virtuous, well-meaning pope. He would have 
made peace if he could. He would have reconciled the 
German nation by reforms if he could, but with the wish 
he had not the power. Everything was against him ; he 
was old ; his reign was short, and he died clement VII. 
in 1523, to make way, not for Wolsey, for Po P e » *5 2 3 
again Charles V. played his own game, but for another 
of the Medici, Clement VII. He was not a Spaniard, 
but the most powerful ally of Spain that Italy could pro- 
duce among her cardinals. 

In the meantime the Duke of Bourbon (one of the 
Duchies which had become subject to the French crown) 
rebelled from Francis I. and joined the im- DukedeBour- 
perial league against France. Henry VIII. ^f a s g * e st 
also was once more tempted by a vague France, 
prospect of again annexing French provinces to the 
English crown, to help in the invasion of France. 

The result of this invasion was to rouse the national 
feeling, and therefore the power of France. It was un- 
successful, and ended in Francis I. assum- . 

Francis I. 

ing the offensive and crossing the Alps, crosses the 
Then came the battle of Pavia in 1524, in ps- 
which the imperial armies under the Duke a tie bSTof 
of Bourbon and the old German general Pavia - 
PYundsberg gained the victory, and Francis I. was taken 
prisoner. 

Henry VIII. began now to dream not only of getting 
back the lost English provinces, but even of being king 
of France. But Charles V. had little confidence in him 
and Wolsey. He was playing his own game, not that 
of Henry VIII, 

Pope Clement VII. meanwhile had expected Francis 
I. to win at the battle of Pavia, and, to make himself 



156 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii. 

safe, had come to secret terms of alliance with him. 
Before the battle of Pavia he had gone so far as almost 

to break with the Emperor. After the bat^ 
tvveen Charles tie, all Italy began to be afraid that Spanish 
p Q p^ dthe influence would become omnipotent; so a 

rupture between the Pope and Spain was 
imminent. In the meantime the Emperor removed his 
royal prisoner to Spain, so taking him out of the hands 
of his allies. Then came the breach between Charles V. 
and Henry VIII., the marriage of Charles — so long in- 
tended but kept secret — to the Infanta of Portugal, in- 
stead of to the English Princess Mary ; the secret peace 
of Henry with France. In 1526, followed the release of 
Francis on his oath to observe conditions from which the 
Pope at once formally absolved him. This produced a 
final breach between the Emperor and the Pope, and an 
alliance between the Pope and Francis against the Em- 
peror. 

It was at this moment that the Diet of Spires was 
sitting. The Emperor had ordered that stringent mea- 
„ , sures should be taken against the Lutheran 

Result at ° 

the Diet of heresy, and that the Edict of Worms should 
be carried out. This was impossible. The 
new Elector of Saxony, and those who sided with him, 
were too strongly backed for such a course to be taken. 
Now the breach between the Pope and the Emperor came 
to their aid. The Emperor no longer cared to back up 
the interests of a Pope who had quarrelled with him, and 
the result of the Diet was a decree signed by Ferdinand, 
the brother of Charles V., in the Emperor's stead, con- 
taining the memorable clause, that ' Each state should, 
as regards the Edict of Worms, so live, rule, and bear 
itself as it thought it could answer it to God and the 
Emperor.' 



ch. v. Revolution. 157 

This left the Catholic princes to do as they liked on 
the one hand, and the princes who favoured Luther to do 
as they liked on the other. From this decree of the Diet 
of Spires came the division of Germany into Catholic 
and Protestant states. 

This came out of the quarrel between the Pope and 
Emperor. The next thing was the gathering of a Ger- 
man army under George Frundsberg, an ar- March of a 
my composed almost entirely of Lutherans, ^j 111 *n 
under a Lutheran general, a host of discon- Rome. 
tented, wild, reckless men, who had survived the horrors 
of the Peasants' War, were inspired by hope of plunder, 
and inflamed by the zeal of Frundsberg, who declared, 
'When I make my way to Rome, I will hang the Pope !' 

They crossed the Alps by a dangerous unguarded pass, 
descended into the plains of Lombardy, and then joined 
the Spanish army under the Duke of Bourbon. This was 
in January 1527. A few weeks more, and the combined 
army, 20,000 strong, was marching on Rome. Then came 
delays, rumours of a truce, and the mutiny of the Span- 
ish soldiers for their long-withheld pay. Lastly, the 
German soldiers also mutinied, in vexation at which the 
old veteran general Frundsberg fell powerless under a 
shock of paralysis. The army advanced under Bourbon, 
and then followed the commencement of the siege of 
Rome ; the death of Bourbon, shot as he was mounting 
a ladder ; and — the rest shall be told in the graphic words, 
which the brother of the Emperor's secretary Valdez put 
into the mouth of an eye-witness in his ' Dialogue on the 
Sack of Rome.' 

' The Emperor's army was so desirous to enter Rome, 
some to rob and spoil, others for the extreme The sac k 
hatred they bore to the Court of Rome, and of Rome 
some both for the one and the other cause, that the Span* 



158 The Protestant Revolution- ft. ii. 

iards and the Italians on the one side by scale, and the 
Germans on the other side by pickaxes breaking down 
the wall, entered by the Borgo, on which side stands the 
Church of St. Peter and the Holy Palace. Though those 
within had artillery and those without none, yet they en- 
tered without the slaughter of a hundred of themselves. 
Of those within were slain, some say 6,000, but in truth 
there died not upon the entry above 4,000, for they im- 
mediately retired into the city. The Pope in his own 
palace was so careless that it was a wonder he was not 
taken, but seeing how matters stood, he retired himself 
into the castle of St. Angelo, with thirteen cardinals and 
other bishops and principal persons who stayed with him. 
And presently the enemies entered, and spoiled and 
sacked all that was in the palace, and the like did they to 
the cardinals' houses and all other houses within the 
Borgo, not sparing any, no not the Church of the Prince 
of the Apostles ! This day they had enough to do without 
entering Rome, whither our people, hoisting up the draw- 
bridge, had retired and fortified themselves. The poor 
Roman people, seeing their manifest destruction, would 
have sent ambassadors to the army of the Emperor to 
have agreed with him, and to have avoided the sack ; 
but the Pope would by no means consent to it. 

' The captains of the Emperor presently determined to 
assault the city, and the very same night, fighting with 
their enemies, they entered, and the sack continued more 
than eight days, in which time they had no regard of 
nation, quality, or kind of men. The captains did what 
they could to stop it, but the soldiers, being so fleshed in 
their robberies as they were, you should behold troops 
of soldiers passing the streets with cries; one carried 
prisoners, another plate, another household stuff. The 
sighs, groans, and outcries of women and children in all 



CH. v. Revolution. 159 

places were so piteous that my bones yet shake to make 
report of them. They carried no respect to bishops or 
cardinals, churches or monasteries; all was fish that 
came into their net ; there was never seen more cruelty, 
less humanity, nor fear of God. 

'They had no respect even to Spaniards and Ger- 
mans, and other nations that were vassals and servants 
to the Emperor. They left neither house, nor church, nor 
man that was in Rome unsacked or ransomed, not even 
the secretary Perez himself, who was resident at Rome 
on behalf of the Emperor. Those cardinals who could 
not escape with the Pope into the castle of St. Angelo 
were taken and ransomed, and their persons full ill- 
favouredly handled, being drawn through the streets of 
Rome bare-legged. To make mocking of them, a Ger- 
man, clothing himself like a cardinal, went riding about 
Rome in his "pontificalibus," and a bottle of wine on the 
pommel of his saddle, and then a Spaniard in the same 
manner, with a courtezan behind him. The Germans led 
a bishop of their own nation (who stood upon election to 
have been a cardinal) to the market-place to be sold, with 
a bough in his forehead, as they do when they sell beasts. 

1 It is said that the sack of Rome amounted unto, by 
ransoms and compositions, above 15 millions of ducats. 
Churches were turned into stables. The Church of St. 
Peter, both on the one side and the other, was all full of 
horses ! Soldiers carried along the streets nuns from 
monasteries and virgins from their fathers' houses, and 
from the time that the Emperor's army entered Rome 
till the time that I departed — the 12th June — there was 
not a mass said in Rome, nor all that time heard we a 
bell ring nor a clock. Not a priest or friar dared walk 
in the streets except in garments of a soldier, else 
the Germans would cry out, "A pope ! a pope ! kill ! kill!' " 



160 The Protestant Revolution. pt. hi. 

This was what had come to the Pope from the con- 
spiracy of his predecessor with the Emperor at Worms, — 
an imperial edict at the Diet of Spires, in 1526, leaving 
the states of Germany virtually free to adhere to or sever 
themselves from the ecclesiastical empire of Rome as 
they severally pleased ; — Rome sacked by a German 
army in the Emperor's name, and more pitilessly pillaged 
than it had been 1000 years before by the Vandals ; — 
the Pope a prisoner of the Emperor in the castle of St. 
Angelo, and henceforth destined to act as the tool of his 
imperial master, and to yield an enforced submission to 
the supremacy of Spain ! 
t, , e t. We may take this result as marking an 

Result of the J ** 

Papal policy, epoch. Rome had for ever ceased to be the 
capital of Christendom. The old Roman 
form of civilization radiating from Rome had finally given 
place to a new form of civilization, which would go on its 
way independently of Rome, and which Rome was no 
longer able either to inspire or to control. 



PART III. 

RESULTS OF THE PROTESTANT 
REVOLUTION. 

CHAPTER I. 

revolts from rome. 

In Switzerland and Germany. 

(a) Meaning of Revolt from Rome. 

We have now to trace how the Protestant Revolution re- 
sulted in several national revolts from the ecclesiastical 
empire of Rome. 



CH. I. 



Revolts from Rome. 



161 




1 62 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

But first, what did a national revolt from Rome mean ? 
It was the claiming by the civil power in each nation of 
__ . . those rights which the Pope had hitherto 

Meaning of re- ... 

volt from claimed within it as head of the great eccle- 

siastical empire. The clergy and monks had 
hitherto been regarded more or less as foreigners — i. e. as 
subjects of the Pope's ecclesiastical empire. Where 
there was revolt from Rome the allegiance of these per- 
sons to the Pope was annulled, and the civil power 
claimed as full a sovereignty over them as it had over its 
lay subjects. Matters relating to marriages and wills still 
for the most part remained under ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
tion as before, but then, as the ecclesiastical courts them- 
selves became national courts and ceased to be Roman 
or Papal, all these matters came under the control of the 
civil power. Even in matters of religious doctrine and 
practice and public worship, the civil power often claimed 
the final authority hitherto exercised by the Pope. 

Such being the meaning of revolt from Rome, it will 

be clear at once that it was a politic al quite as much as 

,. . , and sometimes more than a relip;ious matter 

A political «=• 

change. — an assertion by the civil power in each 

nation of that free independent national life 
which we noticed as characteristic of the new order of 
things. 

A study of the map showing ' the extent of the revolt 
from Rome ' will illustrate this by another fact — viz. that 
„, ~ .it was those nations which in the main are of 

Ihe I eutonic 

nations revolt- Teutonic or German origin — Germany, Swit- 
The Romanic zerland, Denmark, Sweden, England, Scot- 
maSe n d re " ^&> and the Netherlands— which finally 
under Rome. ma de good their revolt from Rome. As the 
Germans under their great leader ' Hermann' had, 1500 
years before, been the first to make good their indepen- 



CH. I. Revolts from Rome — Switzerland. 163 

dence from the old Roman Empire, so it was in the na- 
tions which were of Germanic speech and origin that 
revolt was made from papal Rome. On the other hand, 
those nations — Spain, France, and Italy — which had 
long formed a part of the old Roman Empire, and were 
Ro7nanic in their languages and instincts, remained in 
allegiance to the Pope. 

There were no doubt many people in Spain, France, 
and Italy who sympathized with the doctrines of the 
Reformers, but there was no revolt, because these na- 
tions, or the civil powers representing them, chose to re- 
main politically connected with Rome. 

It is well to observe also how the turn the revolt took 
in the revolting nations. was in a great degree the result 
of their political condition. 

Thus in England, Denmark, Sweden, in which the 
central power was strong enough to act for the nation 
and to carry the nation with it, there was a 

. . . In some na- 

decisive national revolt from Rome; while tions there was 
in Switzerland and Germany, where practi- voU^'Trfsome 
cally there was no central power capable of dl ^ d ^ action 
acting for the nation as a whole, there were 
divisions and civil wars within the nation, some of its 
petty states at length revolting from Rome, and others 
remaining n^der the ecclesiastical empire. 

We will fijst take the case of these divided nations — 
Switzerland and Germany, and then pass on to the others. 

[b) The Revolt in Switzerland. 
No nation was so absolutely without a central authori- 
ty as the Swiss. Each canton was as independent of 
the others for most purposes as the petty 

r i 1 r v- tttt Switzerland 

feudal states of Germany. When Machia- divided into 
velli complained of the divisions of Italy Cantons - 



1 64 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 




preventing its becoming a nation, he warned the Italians 
of the danger of a country being ' cantonized ' like Swit- 
zerland. But there was this difference between a Swiss 
canton and a petty feudal state. In the Swiss canton 
there was no feudal lord; the people governed them- 
selves. It was not a feudal lordship, but a little republic 
of communes or villages of the primitive Teutonic type, 
in which the civil power was vested in the community. 

If therefore in a Swiss canton the civil power took to 
Civil power itself the ecclesiastical power hitherto held 
vested in the by the Pope, that power became vested in 

people. , , , 7 * 

tne peopte, not, as m other countries, in the 
prince or king. 

Bearing this in mind, the history of the revolt from 
Rome in Switzerland will be easily comprehended. 
Ulrich Zwin- The Swiss reformer, Ulrich Zwingle, was 

gle, the Swiss born in 1484, and was the son of the chief 

reformer. e , . .„ 

man of his village. Well educated at Basle 



CH. I. Revolts from Rome— Switzerland. 165 

and Berne, and after having taken this degree at the 
university at Vienna, he became a curate in Canton 
Glarus. The new learning had spread into Switzerland, 
and Zwingle was one of its disciples. He studied Plato 
and the new Testament in Greek, like Colet and Eras- 
mus. Being sent into Italy twice as army preacher, he 
saw the Swiss troops conquered at Marignano, and re- 
turned home full of patriotic hatred of the system of 
hiring out troops to fight other nations' battles. Then he 
settled in Zurich and became a reformer ; Settles at Zu- 
preaching against indulgences, celibacy in nch - 
the clergy, and whatever else he thought could not be 
justified by the New Testament. 

His own canton, Zurich, under his influ- Zurich as- 
ence, threw off the episcopal yoke of the IcdSStiSd* 
Bishop of Constance and assumed the eccle- P owers - 
siastical authority to itself. The Zurich government au- 
thorized the use of their mother tongue instead of Latin 
in public worship, burned the relics from the shrines 
and altered the mode of admistering the sa- „ 

, . & Berne did the 

craments. So Zurich revolted from Rome same soon 

in 1524. Berne followed soon after; while 

the Forest Cantons — Lucerne, Zug, Schwitz, Uri, and Un- 

terwalden — followed by Fribourg and the Valais, which 

was not yet a Swiss canton, held to the old order of 

things. 

Some cantons going one way and some another, the 
result was division and civil war, the Catholic cantons 
calling in the aid of their old feudal enemies, _. ., 

° . Civil war. 

the House of Hapsburg. The civil war 
lasted, off and on, for two or three years till, in 1531, 
after Zwingle himself had fallen in battle, it was ended 
by the peace of Cappel, at which it was Peace of 
decided that each canton should do as it Cappel, 1531. 



1 66 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

liked, while in the districts which were dependent on the 
Swiss Confederation, and not to any particular canton, 
the majority in each congregation should manage its 
own ecclesiastical affairs. The map will show which 
cantons revolted from Rome, and how the districts were 
divided in their action. 

Zwingle was a true patriot. He wished to see the 
Swiss a united nation ; and with that object he proposed 
Character of political as well as religious reforms which 
Zwmgle. are now b e i n g carried out. He was rather 

a disciple of Erasmus than of Luther. He did not adopt 
the strong Augustinian views of Luther. He also took 
freer views respecting the sacraments. Luther, a slave 
in this respect to the mere letter of Scripture, held by the 
words 'This is my body' so strongly as to 
reis with uphold the doctrine of 'the real presence' 

almost as fully as the Catholic party. 
Zwingle took wider views, treating the sacrament as a 
symbol The violent dogmatic intolerant spirit of 
Luther was never more painfully shown than in the dis- 
pute with Zwingle on this subject. The bitter hatred he 
showed to Zwingle and Erasmus was all of a piece with 
his violent feelings against the poor peasants of 
Germany. Whilst doing justice to the noble and heroic 
character of the great German reformer, these things re- 
mind us that there lingered in his mind much of the 
dogmatism and intolerance of the scholastic theologian. 

( c) The Revolt in Germany (1526-1555). 
We have seen how the German people suffered at the 
commencement of the era because they had not yet be- 
come a united nation ; and also how deep and widely 
spread were their yearnings after national life and unity 
—peasants crying out to the higher powers for protec- 



CH. I. Revolt from Rome — Germany. 167 

tion from feudal oppression — Luther and Hutten ap- 
pealing to them to free the German nation from the 
tyranny of the great ecclesiastical empire of Rome. Had 
Charles V. cared more for Germany than his own selfish 
ambitions, and put himself at the head of the strong 
national feeling, as Frederick of Saxony wanted him to 
do at Worms, there was at least a good chance of 
uniting Germany into a powerful and prosperous nation. 
But he threw away the chance. We have seen how the 
course taken by Charles V. and the higher powers in the 
Diet of Worms produced a revolution which cost a 
hundred thousand lives. We have now to __ , 

.,..,,_ . ., The freedom 

see how it divided Germany into two hostile of theGer- 

camps, hurried her into the horrors of the trypost^ 11 " 

Thirty Years' War, postponed for eight or ^^Sn? 11 
ten generations the freedom of her peasan- 

fe , . . . , . . The Diet of * 

try, and left to our own times the realization Spires, 1526, 
of the yearnings of the German people after ^tatt to take 
national unity. its own . 

J _ course about 

The decision of the Diet of Spires in 1526 Luther, 
had already settled that each state of the Empire should 
do as it thought best in the matter of the edict against 
Luther. 

As might be expected, those princes who sided with 
Luther, and followed the lead of Saxony, at once took 
reform into their own hands. Monasteries TT 

. Hence arose 

were reformed or suppressed, and their rev- Protestant 

enues turned to good account, either for rational" 1 

educational purposes, for supporting the fromRome 66 

preaching of the gospel, or for the poor, while others 

iir 1 1 , remained 

Monks and nuns were allowed to marry, Catholic. 
Luther himself setting the example of mar- 
rying a nun. Divine service was in part carried on in 
German, though Latin was not entirely excluded. The 



1 68 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

youth were taught to read in common schools and in 
the language of the Fatherland. Luther's German Bible 
and German hymns came into popular use. In a word, 
in what were called the ' Evangelical States ' a sever- 
ance was made from the Church of Rome ; and national 
churches sprang up, resting on the civil power of each 
state for their authority and adopting Lutheran doctrines. 
This was the result of the decree of the first Diet of 
Spires and the Emperor's quarrel with the Pope. 

Meanwhile the Emperor, having settled his quarrel 
with the Pope, returned to his loyalty to 

The second r . \ . J 

Diet of Rome, and, taking advantage of this, the 

revereed 5 tiie Catholic party succeeded, in the second 
decision not- Dj e t of Spires, in 1 529, in passing a decree 
the protest of re-enacting the Edict of Worms, and for- 
princes. ' bidding all future reform till a regular coun- 
cil was summoned. The Lutheran princes 
protested against the decree, and so earned the name of 
' Protestants.' 

Civil war would very likely have at once resulted from 
this had not the Turks very opportunely made an attempt 
to extend their empire westward by besieging Vienna. 
The old dread which filled the minds of Christians at the 
beginning of the era came upon them again. Melanch- 
thon, who, with all his wisdom, still believed in astrology, 
watched the movements of the stars, and 
averted by the augured disastrous results from the approach 
ra Vienna!"* °f a comet - Luther showed how thorough a 
German he was by counselling unity in the 
moment of common danger. For a time Germany was 
united again, but only till the Turks had retreated from 
Vienna. 

Charles V. had now reached the summit of his power. 
He had conquered France, he had conquered the Pope, 



ch. I. Revolt from Rome — Germany. 169 

he had been crowned king of Italy at Bo- The Turkg 
logna. He was now again reconciled with driven back. 
the Pope, and lastly, he had driven back the turn T s ag ain 
Turks. He had only to conquer the he- K n t £ rman 
retics of Germany to complete the list of 
his triumphs. So he came in person to the Diet of 
Augsburg in 1530 to ensure by his presence the enforce- 
ment of the Edict of Worms. Every effort was made to 
induce the Protestant princes to submit; DietofA 
but, headed by John of Saxony and Philip burg. The 

, . • -1 1 • j 'Augsburg 

of Hesse, they maintained their ground. Confession.' 
Luther and Melanchthon were at Coburg, 
near at hand, and drew up a statement of Lutheran doc- 
trines which was known henceforth as the 'Augsburg 
Confession.' 

The Emperor at length gave them a few months to 
consider whether they would submit ; if not, the decree 
of the Diet was, that the Lutheran heresy Protestant 
should be crushed by the imperial power, princes form 

... the league of 

The Protestant princes at once formed the Schmaikaid 
•league of Schmalkalden ' for mutual de- defence"* 1 
fence. And this, in spite of Luther's protest 
against opposition to the civil power, would have at once 
led to civil war, had not another Turkish invasion in 
1 532 again diverted the attention of Charles V. and of 
Germany from religious disputes. 

During the life of Luther, the inevitable civil war was 
postponed. Melanchthon used the delay for an attempt, 
by argument and persuasion, to bring about a reconcili- 
ation between Catholic and Protestant theologians. At 
the council of Ratisbon, as we shall see * ^^ 
by-and-by, a theological peace was almost postponed 
concluded ; but the schism was too wide and Luther's 
deep to be healed so easily. Meanwhile, state h e ' 



1.70 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

after state went over to the Protestant side, and civil war 
became more and more imminent. The death of Luther 
in 1 546 was the signal for its commencement. The Em- 
peror and Catholic princes, by means of Spanish soldiers, 
, . , . now tried to reduce to obedience the princes 

but it begins x 

soon after of the Schmalkald league. They conquered 

the Elector John Frederic of Saxony and 
Duke Philip of Hesse, the leaders of the Lutheran party, 
and proceeded to enforce by the sword a return to Cath- 
olic faith and practice all over Germany. 

Charles V. now appeared in his true light as the Span- 
ish conqueror of Germany. John Frederick of Saxony 
and Philip of Hesse, the most beloved and 

Spanish con- . 

quest of Ger- truly German of German princes, were sen- 
many ' tenced to death, kept in prison, and brutally 

treated. Germany, which Charles V. had sacrificed at 
the Diet of Worms to secure his Spanish policy, was now 
kept down by Spanish soldiers, and practically made 
into a Spanish province. 

This was not the national unity which the German peo- 
ple yearned after; it was subjugation to a foreign yoke. 

A few years of Spanish rule produced its natural 
effect — revolt of the German princes, alliance even with 
France ! and then came, with strange suddenness, the 
defeat and flight of Charles V. He made an attempt to 
regain part of the ground which the French had taken, 
and then abdicated, leaving the empire to his brother 
Ferdinand, Spain and the Netherlands to his son Philip 
„ , „ II. Then followed his cloister life, his 

Revolt of . •■,.,-,,, 

the Protes- strange remorse in consideration that he had 

Defea"of eS ' ■ not averted all these evils by the timely de- 

£s a abdicll ; struction of the heretic Luther at the Diet 

tion and f Worms ; and then at last the end of his 

death. . 

strange, brilliant, but misguided life in 1558. 



ch. ii. Revolt of England from Rome. 171 

The struggle of Charles V. with Germany ended in the 
Peace of Augsburg (1555), with its legal recognition of 
the Protestant states and its wretched rule _ _ 

I he Peace 

of mock toleration — cujus regio, ejus religio of Augsburg 
■ — toleration to princes, with power to compel itVruie'of 
their subjects to be of the same religion as J^ ktolera - 
themselves ! It was a peace so rotten in its 
foundation that out of it came by inevitable necessity 
that most terrible chapter of German history, and perhaps 
of any history — the Thirty Years War— which cost Ger- 
many, some say, half her population, robbed her citizens 
of the last vestige of their political freedom, confirmed 
the serfdom of her peasantry for two centuries more, and 
left upon some of her provinces scars which may be 
traced to-day. 

Such terrible paths had the German people to tread 
towards national freedom and unity. Ten generations 
of Germans had to bear the curse brought ^ ., 

Evils 

upon them, not by the Reformation, but by brought 
those who opposed it — not by Luther, nor m ^. n y by"" 
even by Miinzer and his wild associates, but Cnarles v - 
by the Emperor Charles V. and others of the higher 
powers who sided with him when he sold the interests of 
Germany and signed the treaty with the Pope on that 
fatal 8th of May, 1521, at the Diet of Worms. 



CHAPTER II. 



REVOLT OF ENGLAND FROM ROME. 

(a) Its Political Character. 
There were two points in which the revolt of England 
from Rome differed from the revolt in Switzerland and 
Germany. 



172 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

(1) England was a compact nation with a strong 
central government ; and so, instead of splitting into 
In England parties and ending in civil war, revolted 
from r Rome altogether, the king and parliament acting 
was national, together, and transferring to the crown the 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction hitherto exercised by the Pope 
in England. 

(2) In the Protestant states of Germany and cantons 
of Switzerland, a religious movement had preceded and 
and came at caused a political change ; but in England 
political 11 tne political change came first and the 
causes. change in doctrine and mode of worship long 
afterwards. The severance of England from Rome was 
not the result of a religious movement, but of political 
causes, which we must now trace. 

[b) Reasons for Henry Villus Loyalty to Rome. 
Up to a certain point in his reign Henry VIII. held by 
Henry viii. th e P°pe and opposed Luther. At the time of 
defends the the Diet of Worms he joined the league of the 

divine autho- •> ° 

rity of the Pope and Emperor, not only against France, 

writes T but also against Luther. Whilst the Diet of 

Lu°ther^n inSt Worms was sitting, he wrote his celebrated 
J 5 21 - book against Luther and in defence of the 

divine authority of the Pope — for doing which the Pope 
rewarded him with the title of " Defender of the Faith." 
His zeal in this matter was so eager as to surprise Sir 
Thomas More, who was now in Henry VIII.'s service. 
When the king showed him the book, and he saw the 
passages in defence of the divine authority of the Pope, 
He tells Sir More (who himself doubted it, and had 
Thomas hinted his doubts in his Utopia by making 

secret reason the Utopians talk of electing a Pope of their 
own) questioned with the king whether it 



ch. ii. Revolt of England from Rome. 173 

was wise to write so strongly on that point. " Where- 
unto (More says) his Highness answered me that he 
would in no wise anything minish of that matter ; of 
which thing his Highness showed me a secret cause 
whereof I never had anything heard before." 

Thereupon More studied the matter afresh, altered his 
opinion, came to the conclusion that the Papacy was of 
divine authority, and held that view so strongly ever 
after, -that at last he died rather than deny it. The 
reasons which made Henry VIII. uphold the divine au- 
thority of the Pope, are the clue to the history of the 
severance of England from Rome afterwards. 

What were they ? 

We saw how the ruling idea of Henry VII. was to 
establish himself an$l his heirs firmly on the throne. 
Kings had hitherto had such precarious thrones that they 
lived in constant fear of rebellions and pretenders. We 
saw how Henry VII. relied greatly on his foreign policy 
and alliances to make his throne secure, and that the 
chief way of making these alliances firm, in 
an age of bad faith and Machiavellian maSge with 
policy, was by royal marriages. Henry VII. ArraTn 6 ° f 
knew Ferdinand of Spain would tell lies or 
break his oath without remorse, but he also knew that 
if he could marry his son and probable successor to 
Ferdinand's daughter, Ferdinand would stick by him in 
close alliance in order to secure that his daughter might 
some day be queen of England. So Henry VII. had 
married his eldest son Arthur, Prince of Wales, to Cathe- 
rine of Arragon, and when Arthur, died, had strained 
a point to get Catherine betrothed to his next son, 
Henry VIII. 

Now there was a difficulty about this marriage. If the 
marriage with Arthur was merely a formal marriage, then 



174 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. in. 

it was only an ecclesiastical matter, and the Pope's con- 
sent to Catherine's marriage with Henry might make all 
right. But if it was a real marriage, then 
aSutits° U the second marriage with Henry would be 
validity. clearly contrary to the divine law, as con- 

tained in the Book of Leviticus, where marriage with a 
brother's wife was forbidden : and so, in that case, the 
question would be whether the Pope could set aside the 
divine law, and make lawful what it forbad. To do this 
must certainly be a great stretch of the papal power, and 
it only could be justified on the very high ground of the 
divine authority of the Pope. 

The betrothal of Henry to Catherine was from the 

beginning a miserable affair. Its object was political. 

It was his father Henry VII. 's doing while 

Its unsatisrac- \ ° 

tory beginning, he was a boy ; and so douottul, to say the 
least, was its validity to those who knew all 
about it, that to Henry VII. 's. superstitious mind the death 
of his queen seemed a divine judgment upon it. He 
even then, as we have seen, proposed to marry Catherine 
himself, but Ferdinand of Spain would not hear of it. A 
bull was obtained from Pope Julius II., treating the ques- 
tion of the reality of the former marriage as doubtful, but, 
notwithstanding the doubts, sanctioning Catherine's mar- 
riage with Henry. The betrothal was completed, but 
the wary monarch made his son sign a secret protest 
against it as soon as he was of age, so that he might at 
any time set it aside if the turn of political events made 
it expedient to do so. We must remember, however, 
that some of these matters were court secrets, and would 
never have been publicly known had not future events 
brought them to light. 

Upon the accession of Henry VIII. it was needful for 
him to make up his mind about his marriage. The 



CH. II. Revolt of England from Rome. 175 

doubts and difficulties remained the same as ever to those 
who knew all about it, and it was not possible to dispel 
them. But the alliance with Spain was still considered 
important. And so the marriage with Catherine was 
concluded. The public were told that the former mar- 
riage had never been consummated, and that Henry 
VIII. was acting under the sanction of a Papal bull. 
This silenced talk out of doors, and the king smothered 
any secret doubts of his own, relying on the divine au- 
thority of the Pope. So the matter was concluded, and 
now for years had not been questioned again. When, 
therefore, Luther's attack upon the divine authority of 
the Pope was attracting attention every- 
where, we see that Henry VIII. had serious rested on the 

<• ■< • r 1 r i' •. tt Divine autho- 

reasons of his own for defending it. He r ;ty of the 
knew in fact that the validity of his mar- Pope- 
riage, and the legitimacy of his children's rights to suc- 
ceed to the throne, depended upon it. 

He had naturally been very anxious for an heir, so 
that his throne might be secure. Unless he had an heir, 
people must be thinking who will be king 
next, and plotting to succeed to the throne. ^xilty a bout S 
Henry and Catherine had had several chil- ltj and * he 

' succession. 

dren, but all had died except one — the 
Princess Mary — who, at the time of the Diet And anxiety tc 
of Worms, was a child of four years old. tems^iSTth* 
On her alone the succession depended, and rharhTv 
Henry was anxious to secure it, as we have 
seen, by a close alliance with the Pope and Spain, ce- 
mented by the marriage of the Princess Mary to Charles 
V. Henry VIII. knew that the succession to the throne 
might at any time be made very precarious indeed if he 
should ever quarrel with the Papal and Spanish Courts. 
An event which happened about this time showed how 



176 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

keenly alive Henry VIII. was to these anxieties about 
the successsion of the Princess Mary. He 

Execution of , ■ * 

the Duke of startled the world all at once by the execu- 
forhavmg m tion °f the Duke of Buckingham for trea- 
his eye upon son . f or h av i n p- his eye on the succession 

the succes- » & ^ 

sion to the to the throne. The Duke, it was said, 
amongst other things, had been heard to 
speak of the death of the royal children as judgments on 
Henry and Catherine for their marriage. This was 
enough to rouse Henry's suspicions, and so, after a 
formal trial, he was found guilty of treason and be- 
headed as a warning to others. 

(c) Sir Thomas More defends Henry VIII. against 
Luther. 

Probably the secret which Henry VIII. confided to 

Sir Thomas More had something to do with the doubts 

about the validity of the marriage, and 

effect of J ' , 

Knowledge of opened his eyes to the fact how the succes- 
VinJs se- si° n to the throne and the safety of the 
Thomas Sir kingdom was involved in the divine au- 
More's thority of the Pope. It set him, as we have 

said, studying the fathers until he came to 
the conclusion that an authority which had long been 
recognized, and on which so much depended, must have 
divine sanction. Having come to this conclusion, he 
was not likely to be made more favourable to Luther than 
he otherwise would have been. We have seen that the 
Oxford Reformers had from the first taken high ground 
on the necessity of unity in the Christian Church. They 
had also always been opposed to the Augustinian views 
which Luther had adopted. They had agreed with 
Luther in little but in the demand for a religious and 
ecclesiastical reform. 



CH. II. Revolt of England fr 07?i Rome. 177 

Erasmus had refused to identify himself with Luther, 
and while defending him up to a certain point against 
the Papal party had urged upon him moderation. This 
advice Luther had not followed, and now Erasmus held 
aloof from the Protestant struggle, urging moderation on 
both sides, preaching unity, and going on quietly with 
his own works, amongst which were fresh editions of his 
New Testament. 

It is not surprising, then, that when Luther wrote his 
violent reply to Henry VIII. 's book, More should be 
ready to defend it. He did so, and as time went on his 
zeal against Luther grew by degrees almost into hatred. 
As news of the wild doings of the prophets of Zwickau 
and the horrors of the Peasants' War were reported in 
England, More laid the blame on Luther. He regarded 
him as a dangerous fanatic, scattering everywhere the 
seeds of rebellion against the powers that be, whether 
civil or religious. 

He also urged his friend Erasmus to write against 
Luther. In 1524, on the eve of the Peasants' War, 
Erasmus did write a book against Luther's _ . . 

Reaction in 

strong Augustinian views, in which he urged the minds of 
that they were sure to lead to all sorts of More against 
abuses in wilder hands. In the year of the Luther - 
Peasants' War Sir Thomas More wrote an earnest letter 
to one of Luther's supporters in Wittenberg, charging 
the Lutheran movement with having lit the flame of se- 
dition and set Germany on fire. 

It is sad to see good and noble men like More hurried 
into reaction, and unable to see the good and noble 
points in a man like Luther, as well as his violence and 
errors. But it was not unnatural. He dreaded lest the 
heresies which had led in Germany to the Peasants' 
War, might spread into England, and lest heresy and 
N 



178 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

treason should again be joined as in the days of the 
Lollards. His judgment was no doubt to some extent 
carried away by his fears. But we must recognize the 
sincerity and mental reactions such as these in the lives 
of good men. Each class of Reformers we have seen 
to be suspicious of those who went further and faster 
than they did themselves. Honest men of the old school 
blamed Erasmus for all that happened. Erasmus, they 
said, had laid the ^gg, and Luther had hatched it. Eras- 
mus, in his turn, blamed Luther's violent conduct and 
language. Luther again denounced Miinzer and the wild 
prophets of revolution, as well as the poor deluded pea- 
sants. If this was natural, so was the reaction in the 
mind of Sir Thomas More. We need not, however, re- 
gret it any the less on that account. 

[d) Reasons for Henry VIII' s change of Policy. 

Having thus seen that Henry VIII. from policy, and 
More from conviction, were at this time strongly in fa- 
vour of the Pope and his divine authority, the next thing 
is to mark how long Henry VIII. continued of this 
mind. The answer is, just so long as his alliance with 
Spain C07itinued. 

During the wars of the Emperor, the Pope, and Henry 

VIII. with France, Wolsey (now cardinal and legate, 

and Archbishop of York, and soon after lord chancellor 

also) was the war minister. It was he who 

Wolsey, the ' 

great war knew all the mind of Henry VIII. and car- 

Henry 6 VIII. ried on his secret negotiations with Charles 
V. and the Pope. It was he who managed 
the treachery with Francis I., and made what prepara- 
tion was needful for royal meetings, embassies, and 
wars. It was Wolsey, too, who had to manage parlia- 
ments, and urge them to grant subsidies to pay for the 



CH. II. Revolt of England from Rome. 179 

wars, and when he could get no more money from 
Parliament it was Wolsey who managed to get it by le- 
gal means, such as forced contributions from private 
persons called ' benevolences.' 

More was a novice on the privy council, w 

-.,,,. T T . . r . More opposed 

and holding Utopian views, often in a mi- to the wars 
nority against Wolsey's measures. Once he 
was alone in disapproval of the great minister's plans. 
Wolsey hinted that he must be a fool. ' God be thanked,' 
replied More, ' that the king has but one fool in his 
council ! ' 

It mattered little to the king or Wolsey what he 
thought, but More took care to let the king know that 
England's joining in the wars with France was against 
his judgment. 

Wolsey's and Henry's confidence in Charles V. was 
shattered by degrees. First came the treachery of 
Charles V. in not helping to secure the elec- p • , 

tion of Wolsey as Pope on the death of treachery,' 
Leo X. and afterwards of Adrian VI. Then 
came the continuance of the war against France, under 
the Duke of Bourbon, who flattered Henry with hopes 
of regaining in case of victory the lost English provinces 
in France. Next carne Pope Clement VII. 's 
fast and loose game with the allied sove- pipe's e 
reigns ; and lastly, the battle of Pavia. Of 
these events we have spoken in a previous chapter. 

On hearing the news of the capture of Francis I. at 
the battle of Pavia, Henry VIII. proposed that he himself 
should be king of France and Charles V. marry the 
Princess Mary, so that in her right Charles V. might 
some day become lord of all Christendom. Up to this 
moment he had clearly not changed his mind. He still 
wished to continue the Spanish alliance, and was true to 



i8o Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

Catherine and the Princess Mary. But just as his hopes 
were at their highest point they vanished for ever. 
Charles V. let Francis I. resume his throne on conditions 
which the Pope declared to be null and void. Charles 
V., instead of marrying the Princess Mary, married the 
Infanta of Portugal, and Henry found him- 
viii. ' s self betrayed. Charles V. and the Pope, on 

pdtcy^ll at whose alliance so much depended, had now 
sea again. "both escaped from his control. When, by 

the conquest of Rome, the Pope himself soon after be- 
came Charles V.'s prisoner and tool, Henry VIII. 's for- 
eign politics were indeed all at sea. 

(e) The Crisis — Henry VIII. determines upon the 
Divorce from Catherine of Arragon. 
Now look at Henry VIII. 's position. Mary was still 
his only child. There had never yet been a queen on 
the throne of England. He could no longer 

Results of & & 

breach with rely on Charles V. and the Pope. They at 
any time, and for political purposes, and in 
spite of Henry, could dispute the legitimacy of his only 
daughter. Once more the succession to the throne was 
uncertain, and in its nature the uncertainty could not be 
cured. What was he to do ? 

He resolved to take the bull by the horns, to divorce 
himself from Catherine of Arragon, to disinherit Mary, to 
Political rea- marry a young maid of honour, named 
torcefrom 6 '" Anne Boleyn, and to hope for other heirs to 
Catherine. foe crown. It was a bold policy, for mar- 
riage was a matter which belonged to the ecclesiastical 
empire, and so the divorce required the Pope's consent. 
Wolsey set his wits to work to secure the Pope's sanc- 
tion to the divorce. He got his own ecclesiastical power 
as legate increased by the Pope, and Cardinal Campeg- 



CH. II. Revolt of England from Rome, 181 

gio over from Rome to join him in deciding on the 
validity of the marriage. He tried every means to se- 
cure the divorce required by Henry. He __ , 

^ J J Wolsey tries 

had no notion of destroying in Henrys to get the Pope 
mind the papal authority which as legate vor^but 
he wielded in part, and as pope still hoped fails - 
some day to wield entirely. Had he succeeded in obtain- 
ing the papal sanction, there would have been no breach 
with Rome. But he failed. The Pope, at the bidding 
of his Spanish conqueror, made endless de- Henry VIII. 
lays ; and Campeggio returned without hav- terlntonis 1 ^" 
ing settled anything. At last, in spite of all own hands - 
that Wolsey could do, Henry VIII. determined to mar- 
ry Anne Boleyn, and took the matter into his own hands. 
This involved a deliberate breach with Rome and the 
fall of Wolsey. Henry VIII. made up his mind to face both. 

(/) Fall of Wolsey (1529-1530). 

Cardinal Wolsey had been the very type of an over- 
grown ecclesiastical potentate. Second to none but the 
king, he had assumed to himself a viceregal ,, „ „ TT , 

° Fall of Wolsey. 

magnificence and state. And now that ec- 
clesiastical grievances had come to the top, and, above 
all, the king himself was quarelling with the Pope, Wol- 
sey became a sort of scapegoat for both ecclesiastical 
and papal sins. He was condemned formally for having 
used his legatine and ecclesiastical authority contrary to 
the royal prerogative. But the king had so far connived 
at and sanctioned the very things for which he was now 
condemned, and used them for his own purposes, that 
he could hardly deal very harshly with his old minister. 
He left him his archbishopric of York, to which he re- 
turned in 1 530. There he resumed some of his old state, 
but by his intrigues to obtain popularity amongst the 



1 82 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

Northern nobles again excited the fears of the court. 
Messengers were sent down* to arrest him of high treason, 
and he was on his journey to London to answer the 
charge, when, seized by a fever, he died at Leicester 
Abbey, having given utterance to the famous words, 'Had 
I served my God as I have served my king, he would 
not have given me over in my gray hairs ! ' Henry 
VIII. was not conspicuous for gratitude to his ministers. 

(g) The Par liament of 1 529-1536. Revolt of England 

from Rome. 

Wolsey was dismissed in 1529. Hitherto the chief 

ministers and lord chancellors of kings of England had 

c . ~, been ecclesiastics. This rule was now 

hir 1 nomas 

More lord broken through. The Dukes of Norfolk and 

Suffolk were made chief ministers and Sir 
Thomas More lord chancellor. Lastly, a parliament was 
called. 

A crisis had come in English history. The parliament 
of 1529 was to England what the Diet of Worms might 
have been to Germany. The English Com- 
of 1529. a mons made use of this parliament, as the 
English his- Germans did of the Diet of Worms, to make 
Diet of 6 the complaints against the clergy and the eccle- 
Worms in siastical courts. For a long time the people 

history. of England, like the Germans, had resisted 

the power of the ecclesiastical empire. The freedom of 
the clergy from the jurisdiction of the secular courts on 
, . the one hand, the jurisdiction of the ecclesi- 

Complamts J 

against the astical courts on the other hand over laymen 

clergy and . . . i , r 

ecclesiastical in such matters as marriages, probates of 
abuses. wills, and the distribution of property 

amongst the next of kin on the death of the owner, were 
real and long-standing grievances. The clergy, by their 



ch. ii. Revolt of England from Rome. 183 

ecclesiastical courts, harassed and taxed the people be- 
yond endurance. The character of the clergy and monks 
was also grievously complained of. Wolsey 
had sought, as Cardinal Morton had done attempts at 

, .. ..' r L , , TT - ecclesiastical 

before him, to reform these abuses. Him- re f rm under 
self a cardinal and legate, he had sought g^ al auth °- 
powers from the Pope to repress the evils ; The kJn 
to visit and even suppress some of the worst and pariia- 

. , . ment now 

of the monasteries and correct the clergy ; take up the 
and his scheme, partly carried out, was to matter - 
found colleges at the universities out of the proceeds. 
This was all very well as far as it went, but it never went 
far enough to be of much use, and now the time of re- 
formation under papal authority was passed. Both king 
and parliament were in a mind to undertake themselves 
the needed ecclesiastical reforms. 

A petition, describing at length the ecclesiastical 
grievances, was laid by the Commons before the king. 
The king submitted it to the bishops, at the . 

& r Petition of 

same time requiring henceforth that no new the Com- 
law should be passed by the clergy in con- ^cSS?-" 15 
vocation, any more than in parliament, a^Lf™^" 
without his royal consent. The bishops tried 
to explain away the complaints, but before parliament 
was prorogued acts were passed fixing at reasonable sums 
the amounts to be demanded for probate of wills and 
funeral fees, prohibiting the clergy from engaging in 
secular business, or holding too many benefices, and 
obliging them to reside in their parishes. 

These were matters of practical reform, such as Colet 
had urged in his sermon to convocation in 1511. He 
had urged that the clergy in convocation 
should take up these reforms, and reform reforms. 
themselves. They had let eighteen years slip by without 



1 84 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. in. 

doing it, and now the bolder power of Parliament was 
over-ruling their feeble opposition. 

Meanwhile the divorce question went into another 
phase. Cranmer now came on to the scene. He was 
The divorce soon to be the chief ecclesiastical adviser of 
question laid Henry VIII. He consulted the chief univer- 

before the J 

Universities sities of Europe on the power of Pope Julius 
to dispense with the divine law, and so upon 
the validity of the marriage with Catherine. The Uni- 
versities gave their opinions very much according to the 
influence brought upon them. The English and French 
were most in favour of Henry VIII. 's views. The 
opinions were laid before parliament in 1531, but nothing 
further was done that year. 

In its next two sessions this celebrated parliament 

proceeded step by step with ecclesiastical 

reforms. reforms. The greatest of all legislative 

scandals, benefit of clergy, was curtailed. Payment of 

annates to Rome was forbidden. Appeals 

The king , ,. , , __ . ,,' 

declared to Rome were abolished. Heretics were still 

KfoTthe to be burned, but speaking against the Pope 
E hu [ C nd 0f was declared no longer to be heresy. The 

instead of king's assent was made necessary to eccle- 

siastical ordinances. The Pope's jurisdiction 
in England was abolished and transferred to the king. 
Lastly he assumed the title of supreme head of the 
Church of England, which was finally confirmed by 
Parliament in 1 534. 

The king meanwhile determined to deal 
marries 1 Anne with his own marriage. In defiance of the 
revok n of The Po P e . ne married Anne Boleyn in January 
England j 532-3. The marriage with Catherine was 

from Rome JJ J fc> 

is now com- declared null and void by Cranmer, now 
Archbishop of Canterbury, and by act of 



CH. ii. Revolt of England from Rome. 185 

parliament. Thus the breach with Rome was complete. 
England had, in fact, revolted from the ecclesiastical em- 
pire, by the joint action of king and parliament, and with 
the assent, however reluctant, even of the clergy. 

(A) Heresy still punished in England. 
Now it will be observed that all this came to pass 
without any change of religious creed, without England 
becoming Lutheran or Protestant. All the while heresy 
was a crime against which king and parliament and 
clergy were equally severe. The breach with Therg had 
Rome made no difference on this point, ex- been no 

change of 

cept that speaking against the Pope was no religious 
longer heresy. There was as stern a deter- 
mination as ever to prevent the spread of ^rsecutedf 1 
heresy in England. Wolsey's dying advice thfn^yvS/ 
to Henry VIII. in November 1 ^o was not to the transia- 
11 • • r ■, --r 1 tor of the 

let the new pernicious sect of the Lutherans New Testa- 
spread in England. Tindal, the noble single- ment " 
minded Englishman to whom we owe the first translation 
of the New Testament into English, was all this while 
watched and tracked and persecuted from place to place 
as a dangerous foe. Fired with zeal by reading the New 
Testament of Erasmus, to give the English people access 
to its truths in the "vulgar tongue," he pursued his ob- 
ject with a heroism and patriotism which should make his 
name dear to Englishmen. Strange was it that one of his 
persecutors was Sir Thomas More, who, in his "Utopia," 
had expressed views in favour of religious toleration. 

It was just after the sack of Rome that More pub- 
lished his opinion that heresy, being dangerous to the 
state, ought to be punished in England, lest Sir Thomas 
it should lead to similar results to those it had gainst Z& ^ 
led to on the Continent. It was only a few heres y- 



1 86 Results of the P?-otestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

mom/is after, that when, on the fall of Wolsey in 1529, he 
was made lord chancellor, he had to swear by his oath of 
office, amongst other things, to cariy out the laws against 
heresy. He became now, by virtue of his office, the 
public prosecutor of heretics. The bishops were his most 
active police, and ever and anon poor men were handed 
over to him for examination and legal punishment. The 
times were barbarous. Torture was used in the examina- 
tion of criminals and of heretics also, and, it can hardly 
be doubted, even in the presence of Sir Thomas More. 
Yet, in a certain way, More's gentleness showed itself 
even in persecution. By the law of the land, heretics 
must abjure or be burned. More tried hard to save both 
their bodies and souls. He used every means in his 
power to induce them to abjure. During the first two 
years of his chancellorship he staved off the evil day. 
Every single heretic abjured ; no single fire had yet 
been lit in Smithfield during his rule ; but, in the last six 
months of it, three abjured heretics relapsing into heresy 
were burned under his authority, the dying martyrs' 
prayers rising from the stake, " May the Lord forgive Sir 
Thomas More !" " May the Lord open the eyes of Sir 
Thomas More !" 

Strange was it that during these sad months, while 
More was persecuting others for conscience' sake, he 
himself had to choose between his own conscience and 
death. 

(i) Execution of Sir Thomas More (1535). 
We have seen that he had come to the conviction that 
the Pope was head of the Church by divine authority. 
More himself ^ e ^^ ^ e ^ ^is post of Lord Chancellor so 
has to suffer j long as the action of Parliament involved 
sake. only the much needed reform of ecclesias- 

tical abuses — till 1532. But so soon as, in 



CH. ii. Revolt of England from Rome. 187 

1532, he saw the breach with Rome was inevitable, and 
that Henry VIII. would delay no longer, he resigned the 
seals and retired into the bosom of his home at Chelsea 
■ — that home which Erasmus had made known all over 
Europe as a pattern in respect of domestic virtue, cul- 
ture, and happiness. 

More had firmly told the king that he disapproved of 
the divorce, both before and after he was lord chancel- 
lor. He declined to be present at Anne Boleyn's coro- 
nation ; and when warned and threatened by order of 
the king, his brave reply was that threats were argu- 
ments for children, not for him. When the oath ac- 
knowledging Anne Boleyn as the lawful wife of Henry 
VIII. was administered to him, he refused to take it. 
Bishop Fisher alone among the whole bench 
of bishops did the same. More and Fisher Fisher sent 
were therefore sent to the Tower.' 

Himself in prison for conscience' sake, More's thoughts 
turned to the heretics against whom he had been so zea- 
lous ; and he left a paper for his friends warning them 
if ever, by reason of their office, they had to punish 
others, not to let their zeal outrun their charity. It was, 
perhaps, a confession that it had been so with him. He 
pondered also on the divisions in the Church, and ex- 
pressed his hopes that after all there might be a recon- 
ciliation between Catholics and Protestants. 

His wife visited him in prison, and reminded him of 
his home and his peril in not taking the oath. ' Good 
Mistress Alice,' he replied to her, 'tell me one thing: Is 
not this house as nigh heaven as mine own ?' 

His beloved daughter Margaret Roper visited him of- 
ten, and the story of his love for her and her daughterly 
affection for him, has become a favourite theme of his' 
torians, painters, and poets. 



1 88 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

His trial, like that of the Duke of Buckingham, was 
a typical Tudor trial. It was not a question of guilt or 
innocence, but of state necessity. Anne Boleyn's star 
being in the ascendant, Sir Thomas More and Bishop 
Fisher must die. 

This is Mr. Froude's account of More's death : 

' The four days which remained to him he spent in 

' prayer, and in severe bodily discipline. On the night 

Executionof ' of the 5 th of July, although he did not 

Sir Thomas ' know the time which had been fixed for 

More. ... . . , . . . , , 

his execution, yet, with an instinctive feel- 
' ing that it was near, he sent his daughter Margaret his 
' hair-shirt and whip, as having no more need of them, 
' with a parting blessing of affection. 

' He then lay down and slept quietly. At daybreak 
' he was awoke by the entrance of Sir Thomas Pope, who 
' had come to confirm his anticipations, and to tell him 
' that it was the king's pleasure that he should suffer at 
' 9 o'clock that morning. He received the news with 
'utter composure. " I am much bounden to the king," 
' he said, " for the benefits and honours he has bestowed 
' " upon me ; and, so help me God, most of all am I 
' " bounden to him that it pleaseth his Majesty to rid me 
1 " shortly out of the miseries of this present world." 

' Pope told him the king desired he would not use 
' many words on the scaffold. " Mr. Pope," he answered, 
1 " you do well to give me warning ; for, otherwise, I had 
* " purposed somewhat to have spoken, but no matter 
-* " therewith his grace should have cause to be offended. 
' " Howbeit, whatever I intended, I shall obey his High- 
* " ness' command." 

' He afterwards discussed the arrangements for his 
' funeral, at which he begged that his family might be 
' present ; and when all was settled, Pope rose to leave 



ch. ii. Revolt of England from Rome. 189 

'him. He was an old friend. He took More's hand 
' and wrung it, and, quite overcome, burst into tears. 

• " Quiet yourself, Mr. Pope," More said, " and be not 
• " discomfited, for I trust we shall once see each other 
■ " full merrily, when we shall live and love together in 
*" eternal bliss." 

' So about 9 of the clock he was brought by the lieu- 
tenant out of the Tower, his beard being long, which 

* fashion he had never before used — his face pale and 
' lean, carrying in his hands a red cross, casting his eyes 
' often toward heaven. He had been unpopular as a 
'judge, and one or two persons in the crowd were inso- 
' lent to him ; but the distance was short, and soon over, 
' as all else was nearly over now. 

' The scaffold had been awkwardly erected, and shook 
' as he placed his foot upon the ladder. " See me safe 
' " up," he said to Kingston ; " for my coming down I 
' " can shift for myself." He began to speak to the peo- 
'ple, but the sheriff begged him not to proceed; and 
' he contented himself with asking for their prayers, and 
' desiring them to bear witness for him that he died in 
' the faith of the holy Catholic Church, and a faithful 
' servant of God and the king. He then repeated the 
' Miserere Psalm on his knees ; and when he had ended 
' and had arisen, the executioner, with an emotion which 
' promised ill for the manner in which his part would be 
'accomplished, begged his forgiveness. More kissed 
'him. "Thou art to do me the greatest benefit that I 
' " can receive," he said ; " pluck up thy spirit, man, and 
' " be not afraid to do thine office. My neck is very 
' " short ; take heed, therefore, that thou strike not awry 

• " for saving of thine honesty." The executioner offered 
'to tie his eyes. " I will cover them myself," he said ; 
'and, binding them in a cloth which he had brought 



190 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. in- 

' with him, he knelt and laid his head upon the block. 
' The fatal stroke was about to fall, when he signed for a 
' moment's delay, while he moved aside his beard. 

' " Pity that should be cut," he murmured, "that has 
' " not committed treason." With which strange words — ■ 
' the strangest, perhaps, ever uttered at such a time — -the 
' lips famous through Europe for eloquence and wisdom 
' closed for ever.' 

( k) Death of Erasmus. (1536). 
The news of the Death of Sir Thomas More in 1535 
reached Erasmus in old age and suffering from illness, 
„ but labouring still with his pen to the last. 

Erasmus . . 

dies soon He was writing a book on the ' Purity of the 

Church,' and in the preface he described 
his friend as 'a soul purer than snow.' He lived only a 
few months longer, died in 1536, and was buried in the 
cathedral at Basle with every token of respect. 

Not forty years had passed since Erasmus had first 
met Colet at Oxford, and since the three Oxford students 
m , . whom for the sake of distinction we have 

The work of 

the Oxford called the Oxford Reformers, joined heart 
had pro- and soul in that fellow-work which had 

resu1te Sreat caught its inspiration from Florence. How 
much had come out of their fellow work ! 
Colet, the one who brought the inspiration from Flo- 
rence, had died in 15 19, before the crisis came. But 
even then the work of the Oxford Reformers was already 
in one sense done. They had sown their seed. The 
New Testament of Erasmus was already given to the 
world, and nothing had so paved the way for the Protes- 
tant Reformation as that great work had done. Since 
Colet's death, Erasmus and More had never met. Each 
had taken his own line. More was driven far further 



ch. ii. Revolt of England from Rome. 191 

into reaction than Erasmus. After the Peasants' War 
and the sack of Rome, Erasmus still preached tolerance 
on the one hand, and satirized the monks and school- 
men on the other hand. And his satire was just as 
bitter in these later writings as it had been in the 
'Praise of Folly.' But he too, like More, held on to 
their old hatred of schism, preached concord in the 
Church, and longed for a reconciliation between the 
contending parties. 

6 

(/) Dissolution of the Monasteries, and Reform of the 
Universities 1536. 

The bitter satire of Erasmus upon the monks bore 
fruit sooner than he himself expected, and especially in 
England. The necessity of a thorough re- m 

s J b The work set 

form in the monasteries was now every- a going by 
where acknowledged, and there was no Reformers 
longer any reason to wait for bulls from goes on - 
Rome before beginning the work. The king was in a 
mood to humble the monks. The bishops and secular 
clergy had bowed their heads to the royal supremacy. 
The time now for the monks and abbots had come. 

Within a few months of More's death, a commission 
was issued by Thomas Cro?nwell (the minis- 

1 . r , Cromwell, 

ter who was now vicegerent of the new now ecciesi- 

royal ecclesiastical authority), for a general ^ofH^ry 3 " 

visitation of the monasteries. vin., in- 

quires into 
The popular complaints against them were the state ot 

not found to be baseless. Scandal had long teries. 

been busy about the morals of the monks. 

The commissioners found them on inquiry worse even 

than scandal had whispered, and reported to Parliament 

that two-thirds of the monks were leading vicious lives 

under cover of their cowls and hoods. 



192 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

Erasmus, in his ' Colloquies,' had spread all over 
Europe his suspicions that the relics by which the monks 
attracted so many pilgrims, and so much wealth in offer- 
ings to their shrines, were false and their miracles pre- 
tended. He had visited and described both 

And into . 

shrines and the two great English shrines of ' St. 
Thomas a Becket ' and ' Our Lady of 
Walsingham,' and had dared to hint that the congealed 
milk of the Virgin exhibited at the one was a mixture of 
chalk and white of egg, and that the immense wealth 
of the other would be of more use if given to the poor. 
The result of the royal inquiry convinced Henry VIII. 
that the 'milk of our Lady' was ' chalk or white lead,' 
and that Thomas a Becket was no saint at all, but a 
rebel against the royal prerogative of Henry II. 

The result of the visitation was the dissolution at once 
_. • . , of the smaller, and a few years afterwards 

Dissolution of . 11. 

the monaste- of the larger monasteries, the monks being 
strucdon of pensioned off, and the remainder of their 
shnnes. vast es t a t es being vested in the king. 

The universities as well as the monasteries were visited 
by the Commissioners, and that reform was carried out 
„ „ , , at the universities which Colet, forty years 

Reform of the . , J J 

Universities. before, had begun at Oxford; a reform 
which converted them from schools of the 
old into schools of the new learning. ' The learning of 
the wholesome doctrines of Almighty God and the three 
tongues, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, which be requisite 
for the understanding of Scripture,' were specially en- 
joined, while the old scholastic text-books became waste 
paper and were treated as such. 

These were the final labors of the memorable Parlia- 
, ment which begun in 1 526, accomplished the 

Parliament of , . r * \ y •,- , , 

1529-36 revolt from Rome, and was now dissolved 

dissolved. • „ r 

in 1536. 



CH. II. Revolt of England from Rome. 193 

One step further the Reformation went under Cran- 
mer and Cromwell. In 1536 the Scriptures _ . „ 

_ .. , .7 r Tindal's trans- 

themselves, in the English translation of lationofthe 
Tindal, revised and completed by Cover- sanctioned, 
dale, were ordered to be placed in every 
church, and the clergy were instructed to exhort all men 
to read them. Thus England owes the basis of her no- 
ble translation of the Bible to William Tindal. He lived 
to see it thus published by royal authority, „ 

r . . J f Martyrdom of 

but soon after fell a victim to persecution 111 Tindal. 
Flanders, and ended his heroic life in a 
martyr's death. 

(m) Later Years of Henry VIII. (1 536-1 547). 

In 1536 Queen Catherine died, and in the same year 
the still more miserable Anne Boleyn was 
divorced, and, with the partners of her al- Ann^Boieyn. 
leged guilt, beheaded. 

The sole offspring of this ill-fated marriage was the 
Princess Elizabeth, and she now, like the Princess Mary, 
was declared illegitimate, and thus the succession was 
again uncertain. 

To meet this difficulty the king married his third 
queen, Yane Seymour, and parliament set- „ ,„„ 

* , . J . , r -- . , Henry VIII. 

tied the succession upon her offspring, and marries Jane 
in default of a direct heir, upon such person e y mour - 
as Henry VIII. should name in his will. 

Meanwhile, this time of renewed unsettlement was 
chosen by the papal party for a general rebellion, known 
as' 'The Pilgrimage of Grace' Reforms had . _ . ,. 

f _ S J _ _ A Catholic re- 

gone too fast for many. It was not to be beliion breaks 
expected that so great a change should meet North, 
with no opposition. It would have been 
strange if Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher had 
O 



194 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

been the only martyrs on the papal side. The rebellion 
was chiefly in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. It was headed 
by some of the old aristocracy, and no doubt was fo- 
mented by the issue iust before of a papal 

fomented by J . J . . JT 

the Pope and bull of excommunication against Henry 
VIII., and by expectations of foreign aid. 
Reginald Pole, a relation of the king's, and afterwards 
legate and Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury under 
Queen Mary, did his best, under papal encouragement, 
to bring about a holy war against England, and thereby 
enforce obedience to the papal power. But 

It is quelled. r r . r 

these schemes of war from without came to 
nought, and the insurrection within was promptly met 
and quelled. The royal supremacy was vindicated by 
the execution of the chief rebels, and the Catholic reac- 
tion thus postponed till the days of Queen Mary. 

Probably the birth at this moment of a long-desired 
prince (afterwards Edward VI.), did as much as the 
Birth of execution of the rebels to assure the stability 

Edward VI. f Henry's throne. But it cost the life of the 

and death ol ■* 

the Queen. queen-mother, and made another marriage 
a state necessity. While Cromwell was pursuing his 
Henry VIII. policy, dissolving the remaining monasteries, 
marries demolishing the shrines of Walsingham and 

Cieves, Canterbury, and transferring their wealth to 

the royal exchequer, he had once more to arrange a 
match for Henry. His choice fell upon Anne of Cieves, a 
connexion of the Elector of Saxony. It fell in with Crom- 
well's policy to use the opportunity to bring about a Prot- 
estant alliance, and Henry married in 1 539 Anne of Cieves. 
But how was it likely that he should fall in love with 
a fourth wife who was plain-looking and spoke not a word 
, , of English ? He soon was weary of his new 

but does not ° J 

like her. match, and as Wolsey was sacrificed to se* 



ch. ii. Revolt of England from Rome. 195 

cure the divorce of Catherine, so Cromwell was now 
sacrificed to secure a divorce from Anne of Cromwell 
Cleves. Another Tudor trial, with less show sacrificed to 

get rid of her. 

of justice even than those of the Duke of 
Buckingham and Sir Thomas More, paved the way for 
the state necessity. Cromwell, like Cranmer, had been 
all along half a Protestant at heart. Unless he had been, 
he could hardly have carried through as he did for the 
king, the successful revolt of England from the ecclesi- 
astical empire of Rome. The king had profited by that, 
but he now meant to profit by Cromwell's fall. So Crom- 
well died upon the scaffold as a traitor. 

Henry was soon rid of Anne of Cleves. The Pro- 
testant alliance fell through. A sort of reconciliation was 
made with Charles V., who naturally hated Cromwell 
more even than he had distrusted Wolsey. And a sort 
of colour of religion was given to the whole R ec0 ncilia- 
proceeding by the more stringent repression £i° n ^ itl L 
of those heresies towards which the fallen 
minister was said to have been unduly lenient. This 
was in 1540. 

The king now married the guilty and unfortunate 
Catherine Howard, whose turn to die on the scaffold 
came (so soon!) in 1542; and then at last Henry 
came the final marriage with Catherine Parr, VIII ' S last 

° two mar- 

a virtuous widow, who proved an honoura- riages. 
ble and efficient royal nurse during the king's few re- 
maining years. 

These years of his decaying health were marked by 
the renewal of the alliance with Charles V. and breaches 
of peace with Francis I. Henry's foreign Alliance 
policy ended as it had begun under the with Spain, 

* J ° and wars 

shadow of Spanish ascendancy, threatened with France. 
English invasion of France, French retaliative invasions 



196 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. in. 

of England, and financial difficulties which always fol- 
lowed in the wake of war. The treasures of Henry VII. 
sufficed not to supply the means for Henry VIII.'s 

early wars with France. So again, in spite 
money. of the wealth which came to the Crown from 

the dissolution of monasteries and the destruction of the 
shrines, the king in his last years found himself with an 
empty exchequer, and obliged to debase the coinage to 

obtain the supplies he wanted. He died in 
Henry VIII. Jan. 1 547 — the year after the death of Luther, 
m 1547- j ust as c j y -j war b ro k e ou t j n Germany, and 

Charles V. set about conquering Germany with his 
Spanish soldiers. 

While Germany was passing through this struggle, 
England was becoming more and more Protestant, under 
Reform goes tne guidance of Cranmer, who managed the 
on during ecclesiastical affairs of England in the short 

the reign of . 

Edward VI. reign of Edward VI. 

But a reaction was to follow. On Edward VI. 's death 
in 1553 the Princess Mary became queen. 
reaction under A Catholic herself, and the wife of Philip II. 
yueen ary. ^ Spain, she restored the Catholic faith in 
England, and tried to quench the English Protestant 
spirit in blood. But she died in 1558 — the same year as 
„ _ . , Charles V. — and under her successor, the 

England be- 
comes finally Protestant Queen Elizabeth, the revolt of 

under S Queen England from Rome became once for all an 
Elizabeth. established fact. Thenceforth, both in po- 
litics and in doctrine, England was a Protestant state. 

(n) Influence of Henry VIII.'s reign on the English 
Constitution. 

It has been sometimes said that Henry VIII.'s reign 
was the reign of a tyrant, and that during his reign the 



ch. ii. Revolt of England from Rome. 197 

English parliament was subservient and 

. . How far the 

cringing to the monarch. constitution 

To judge of this matter rightly we must uSed. am " 
remember that England was passing through 
a great crisis in her history which we have likened to 
that which was marked by the Diet of Worms in Ger- 
man history. How different the English from the Ger- 
man result ! At the Diet of Worms the Em- m 

. . . The revolt 

peror and princes acted m opposition to the from Rome 
German people ; the necessary reforms were by C °onstitu- 
not made, and so there came revolution. In tlonal means - 
the parliament of 1529-36 the king and House of Com~ 
mons acted together, and made the necessary reforms ; 
the clergy submitted to them when they saw they must, 
the dissolution of the monasteries removed the abbots 
from the House of Lords and placed the lay lords in a 
majority, and so in the end England was forced from 
the yoke of the ecclesiastical empire of Rome by con- 
stitutional means, without the revolutions and civil wars 
which followed in Germany. 

That such a revolution was peaceably wrought by 
parliament under the guidance of the king's 
ministers, Cromwell and Cranmer, sustained parliament ° 
by most important precedents the power of mamta,ned - 
parliament in the constitution. 

During his wars, Henry VIII. 's ministers, especially 
Wolsey" resorted to benevolences and forced loans to 
obtain supplies. But the fall of Wolsey, 

j ■ *T. r It preserved its 

and on later occasions the sanction of par- control over 
liament obtained afterwards by way of in- taxatlon - 
demnity for acts admitted to be illegal, kept up the con- 
stitutional principle that the king could levy no taxes 
without the consent of parliament. The real struggle 
on this matter came in the days of the Stuarts. 



198 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

The new ecclesiastical powers of the king as supreme 
head of the Church gave rise to new branches of juris- 
. , , diction, some of which were of a dangerous 

And over the ° 

making of kind. Parliament also, by statute, gave to 
the king s proclamation, within a very re- 
stricted range, the force of statutes, but this was repealed 
in the next reign. And on the whole, the second great 
constitutional principle on which English freedom is 
based was well maintained ; viz., that the king could 
make no new laws without consent of parliament, 

Bearing these things in mind it would be hard to deny 
n ; , , that the parliaments of Henry VIII. deserve 

On the whole r ' x. j • 

the parliaments tolerably well of Englishmen, considering 
deserve* well of the greatness of the crisis through which 
Englishmen. the bar k Q f the state ^ad to be steered in 

their time. 

The greatest blots upon the reign of Henry VIII. were 

the unjust trials for treason by which the most faithful 

of ministers were sacrificed to clear away 

Unjust State ' . , , 

trials the chief obstacles to royal policy, and the way that 
reign of Henry sometimes justice was sacrificed to the per- 
VIIL sonal wishes or even passions of the king in 

connexion with his unhappy matrimonial caprices. 

These things will always stain the memory of Henry 
VIII., but regarding his reign as a whole it would be 
England fared unfair to forget that in it a great crisis was 
Xan h France passed through without civil war, which left 
and Spain. England freed from the ecclesiastical em- 
pire of Rome, and under a constitutional monarchy, 
while France and Spain were left to struggle for cen- 
turies more under the double tyranny of the ecclesiasti- 
cal empire and their own absolute kings. 



ch. in. Denmark and Sweden. 199 

CHAPTER III. 

REVOLT OF DENMARK AND SWEDEN AND (LATER) OF 
THE NETHERLANDS. 

{a) Denmark and Sweden (ij2j-/j6o). 
Denmark and Sweden both revolted from Rome, but 
under peculiar circumstances. From 1520 to 1525 they 
had both been governed by one king — a 
wretched tyrant — Christian II., who legally and Sweden 
had little power, but following the royal yoke^of'chris 2 - 
fashion of the day, tried to make himself an J^"" *"a te 
absolute monarch. Denmark and Sweden 
both rebelled, dethroned Christian II., and then went 
their several ways. 

In Sweden the people, i. e. the citizens and then the 
peasantry, were sick of the tyranny of their nobles and 
clergy, as well as their king, and sighed for The Swedes 
a good king strong enough to curb them. V asa theif VUS 
It was the old siory, what the citizens and kin s- 
peasantry of Germany had long sighed for in vain. But 
in Sweden they got what they wanted. They elected as 
king Gustavus Vasa, a noble who had taken the popular 
side against their former tyrant ; and having elected him, 
they backed him in carrying out in Sweden very much 
the same sort of reforms as Henry VIII. had Sweden, under 
carried out in England. The clergy were ^ProtSant 65 
humbled, their property seized by the crown, nation, 
and Sweden, roused to a sense of national life under 
Gustavus Vasa, took its place among modern nations. It 
was soon to play a prominent part in the great struggle 
between Catholic and Protestant powers. The Swedish 
king, Gustavus Adolphus, was the greatest of the Pro- 
testant leaders in the Thirty Years' War. 



zoo Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. in. 

In Denmark also (and Norway was under the same 
crown) a new monarchy succeeded to that of the ex- 
Denmark also, pelled tyrant. The nobles joined the crown 
khig^becomeT * n crushing the power of the clergy. The 
Protestant. Danish monarchy became established on the 
ruins of the Church. Lutheranism was encouraged. 
Denmark became a Protestant state, and took part, like 
Sweden, on the Protestant side in the Thirty Years' War. 

(a) The Revolt of the Netherlands (158 1). 

The last of the revolts from Rome was that of the 
Netherlands. It was a revolt not only from Rome but 
also from Spain. It does not fall altogether within the 
limits of the era, and so requires only brief notice here. 

Philip II., king of Spain and husband of the English 
queen Mary, tried to enforce the double yoke of Spain 
and Rome upon the Netherlanders. The Netherlands, 
it will be remembered, belonged to the Burgundian pro- 
vinces which came to the Spanish crown by 
Philip II to the marriage alliance of the mother of 
Nether- & Charles V. He was a Netherlander, and as 

Sp'alraS to SUch P°P ular '. but his SOn > Phili P IL » WaS a 

Rome. Spaniard, and felt to be a foreign tyrant. 

He had entered into close alliance with Rome. If he 
could, he would have conquered all countries which had 
revolted from Rome ; and in restoring them to Rome, 
he would have liked to have made them into Spanish 
provinces. It was in pursuance of these ideas that he 
encouraged Queen Mary's restoration of the Catholic 
faith in England, and sent his ' Spanish Armada ' to 
conquer the Protestant Queen Elizabeth. In the same 
spirit he sent his cruel minister, the Duke of Alva, to 
force into submission his rebellious subjects in the 
Netherlands, and to fasten on their necks the double 



CH. iv. The Genevan Reformers. 201 

yoke of Spain and Rome. The result was They ^ 
the revolt of the Netherlands under the and the 

_ _ . r ... ' United 

Prince of Orange. After a terrible strug- Provinces' 
gle, it was at last successful, and ended in p e r ot™tam 
the complete escape of the northern pro- nation, 
vinces from both the Spanish and Papal yoke. This 
was in 1581. From that date the 'United Provinces' 
took their place, like Sweden and Denmark, among the 
Protestant nations of Europe. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE GENEVAN REFORMERS. 

(a) Rise of a new School of Reform. 

The force of the Protestant Revolution was not wholly 
spent in these national revolts from Rome. 

Although apart from them there was a Protestant 
movement going on in the minds of the peo- A p rote stant 
pie, both in those nations which revolted m ?y emen t 

r which was 

from Rome and in those which did not. not national, 

We must now turn our attention to the rise of a new 
school of reform, which led to remarkable results. 
Luther was too national — too German — a reformer, to 
admit of his becoming the universal prophet , 

r ^ • i-i 1 •. 1 -r^v but wh 'ch 

of Protestantism all over the world. Den- influenced 
mark, Sweden, and Norway, coming under tenants" of 
German influence, did indeed become E rance ', 

' Jbngland, 

Lutheran ; but the Protestants of France, Scotland, 

t, , , r, . . and America 

England, Scotland, and America are not more than 
and never have been Lutherans. They 
came more under the influence of the Genevan re* 
formers, of whom we must now speak. 



202 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. in. 

(b) John Calvin. 

The chief of these was John Calvin. He was a 
Frenchman, born in 1 509, and so was twenty-five years 
John Calvin, younger than Luther. He was educated at 
bom 1509. tne universities of Paris and Orleans, 

adopted the Augustinian theology, as Wiclif, Huss, and 
Luther had done before him, and became a Protestant. 
In France heretics were burned, so he left his home to 
travel in Italy and Germany. In 1536, just as Erasmus 
was passing to his rest, he came to Basle, and began his 
t public work as a Protestant reformer by 

stitutes/ publishing his ' Institutes of the Christian 

logical S form Religion.' It was these 'Institutes' of Cal- 
' Caivinistic ' vm wn i cn g ay e rigid logical scholastic form 
doctrines. to those Augustinian doctrines which, as we 

have said, were held in common by most Protestant 
reformers from Wiclif to Luther, but which have been 
since called ' Calvinistic.' He differed from Luther both 
in theory and practice, on those points about which 
Zwingle and Luther had quarrelled. He rejected tran- 
substantiation, which Luther did not altogether ; and he 
founded his Church, like Zwingle, on the republican 
basis of the congregation rather than, as Luther did, on 
the civil power of the prince. He thus was in a sense 
more Protestant than Luther, though at that time only 
the Lutherans were called Protestants. 

Geneva soon became the sphere of his actions. It was 

in a state of anarchy, having rebelled from its bishop, 

who had been practically both ecclesiastical 

Calvin settles . 

at Geneva. and civil ruler m one. Other French re- 
formers had settled at Geneva before Calvin, 
and these shared his stern Protestant doctrines. But 
Calvin soon proved the most powerful preacher. Like 



<;h. iv. The Genevan Reformers. 203 

Savonarola, he rebuked the vices of the people from the 
pulpit. At first this made him unpopular, 

x A r Becomes a 

and he was driven away; but in 1541 he was kind of dictator 
recalled by the people, and made practi- state? 
cally both civil and religious dictator of the 
little state. 

He was in a sense Protestant Pope of Geneva, but de» 
riving his power from the congregation. He and his 
consistory held it their duty to force men to lead moral 
lives, go to church, give up dice, dancing-, . 

. , , . His severe dis- 

swearmg, and so forth ; and the council of cipiine and in- 
the city supported this severe exercise of ec- to erance " 
clesiastical power by their civil authority. Thus for 
twenty years Geneva was under the rule of Calvin and 
his fellow ' saints ;' and an intolerant despotic rule it was. 
Men were excommunicated for insulting Calvin, and sent 
to prison for mocking at his sermons. To impugn his 
doctrine was death or banishment. Hired spies watched 
people's conduct, and every unseemly word dropped in 
the street came to the ear of the elders. Children were 
liable to public punishment for insulting their parents, 
and men and women were drowned in the Rhone for 
sensual sins. Witchcraft and heresy were capital 
crimes ; and one heretic, Servetus, was burned, with his 
books hung to his girdle, for honest difference of opinion 
from Calvin on an abstruse point of divinity. 

The same view of the functions of the Church which 
led him to exercise this severe discipline, led him also to 
control education. He founded academies Tx „ 

He founds 

and schools ; and when his system was ap- schools. 
plied to Scotland, as it afterwards was under 
John Knox, a school as well as a church was planted in 
every parish. 



204 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

(c) Influence of the Genevan School on Western 
Protestantism. 

Whatever Calvin did at Geneva would have mattered 
little to the world if it had stopped there ; but it did 
„. . _ not. The historical importance of Calvin 

His influence r 

on Western lies in the fact that he impressed upon West- 

Protestantism. . 1 ... 1 1 -1 . -I 

ern Protestantism his rigid scholastic creed 
and his views of ecclesiastical discipline. 

The Protestants of France, called Huguenots, were 
and are mainly the offspring of Calvinism. 

SjJSt J° hn Knox ' the reformer of Scotland, and 
the Scotch ^he Scotch Covenanters, were also disciples 

Covenanters, r 

the English of Calvin ; and so Scotch Protestantism re- 

the 'Pilgrim ceived its impress from Geneva. The Puri- 

ofNev^Eng- tans °f England were also Calvinists. Crom- 

land, all of the we n was a Calvinist, and the rule of his 

Genevan 

school. 'saints' was on the Genevan model. The 

Pilgrim Fathers took with them from Eng- 
land to the New England across the Atlantic the Calvin- 
istic creed, and, alas ! its intolerance too. So engrained 
was it in their theological mind that, even though them- 
selves fleeing from persecution, they themselves perse- 
cuted in the land of their refuge. Under the rule of the 
Boston saints there was as little religious liberty as under 
the rule of Calvin at Geneva. 

Nevertheless, the offspring of the Genevan school of 
reform deserve well of history. However narrow and 
m . , . hard in their creed and Puritanic in then 

Their his- 
torical mi- manners, they were men of a sturdy Spartan 

and?"-*' type, ready to bear any amount of persecu- 

Sadonli° n ti° n an( * t0 push through any difficulties, 

character. democratic in their spirit and aggressive in 

their zeal. The banishment of the Huguenots from 



ch. v. Reform within the Catholic Church. 205 

France took away the backbone of her religious life. 
Scotland would not be what she is but for Knox and his 
parish schools. England could not afford to lose the 
Puritan blood which mixes in her veins. New England 
owes a rich inheritance of stern virtues to her ' Pilgrim 
Fathers.' 



CHAPTER V. 

REFORM WITHIN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

(a) The Italian Refo?-mers (to 1541). 
One of the results of the Protestant revolution was the 
reform of the Catholic Church itself. 

We ought never to forget that the Roman Catholic 
Church of our own times is, in fact, a reformed Church 
as well as the Protestant Churches. And we must now 
have patience enough to trace how and by whom its re- 
form was effected. 

Good men of all parties had for long seen the neces- 
sity of a practical reform in the morals of the pope, clergy, 
and monks. And we have seen that the necessity was 
recognized in high quarters. Ferdinand and Isabella's 
great minister, Cardinal Ximenes, and the English min- 
isters, Cardinal Morton and Cardinal Wol- Efforts at 
sey — three cardinals all of great power and {J^™ with " 
undoubted loyalty to Rome — even went so Church. 
far as to get bulls from the Pope, authorizing them to visit 
and reform the monasteries. All good men cried out 
against the crimes of such a pope as Alexander VI. And 
it is not right to charge the Catholic Church wholesale 
with these crimes any more than it would be to charge the 
English nation with the matrimonial sins of Henry VIII. 

There was so strong a feeling all through the Church 



206 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. in. 

against these scandals that, after what had happened, 
Improve- tnev were not likely to occur again. The 

mentmthe^ popes who came after Alexander VI. were 
popes. not angels, but they were outwardly more 

decent than he, at all events. Julius II., as we have 
seen, was the fighting pope. The scandal in his case 
was his lust of war and the extension of the Papal terri- 
tory. Leo X. cared more for art and literature than for 
war, but he, too, had his faults, and the scandal in his 
case was a doubt whether, after all, he really believed in 
Christianity. Adrian VI. was an earnest and stern mor- 
al reformer — too stern for the times — and his reign was 
too short to produce much result. Clement VII. was a 
better man than many, though of blundering politics, 
letting down the Papal power, and becoming at last 
the prisoner and the tool of his Spanish conqueror 
Charles V. 

All this while there were men in Italy of earnest 
Christian feeling who, like the Oxford reformers, were 
men of the new school on the one hand, and opposed to 
the semi-pagan skepticism of the mere ' humanists ' of 
Italy on the other hand. These men longed for reform, 
not only in morals but also in doctrine. They wanted 
„,, ,. religion to be made a thing of the heart, that 

The media- & . & ,.,■•,, 

ting reformers the gross superstition connected with indul- 
gences and other abuses should be set aside, 
and some of them held the Augustinian doctrine of jus- 
tification by faith. This gave them a sort of sympathy 
even with Luther, and they wanted such a reform of 
the Church as they hoped would win back the Protes- 
Valdez Pole tants into her fold, yuan de Valdez, brother 
Contarini. f Charles V.'s secretary (from whose 

writings we have more than once quoted), was one 
of them. Reginald Pole (who opposed Henry VIII.'s 



ch. v. Reform within the Catholic Church. 207 

revolt from Rome so strongly) and Gaspar Contarini (a 
Venetian nobleman of the highest character and influ- 
ence in court circles) were of their number. They had 
among them eloquent preachers and ladies of rank, for- 
tune, and beauty. They held together and exerted 
much influence, and there was a time when they seemed 
to be not without chance of success as mediators between 
the extreme Catholic and Protestant parties. 

Paul III. became pope in 1 534, and the hopes of the 
reform party were raised by his making Pole and Con- 
tarini and some others of their friends cardi- Paul III. 
nals. These men were on the most friendly ^hem " 16 
terms with Erasmus, who in his old age was cardinals. 
urging concord on religious parties and purity on the 
Church. It was rumoured that Erasmus himself was to 
be made a cardinal, and it was said that a red hat was 
on the way to Bishop Fisher when he was executed by 
Henry VIII. 

It was some of these and other signs of the times 
which cheered Sir Thomas More in his prison with the 
belief that better days were coming, that there was at 
least some chance of a reconciliation with the Protestants, 
and a healing of the schism by which the Church was 
rent. The prospect was for the moment promising. 
Paul III. wrote to Erasmus, telling him that he intended 
to call a council (as Erasmus had urged his _, e 

v p ° Chances of a 

predecessors to do) and asking for his in- reconcilia- 
fluence and help both before and in the Protestants 
council. But things moved slowly. Cardinal jnder Paul 
Contarini was more zealous for a council 
than the Pope, who was only half-inclined to it, fearing 
lest it might abridge his power. At length in 1541 — five 
years after the death of Erasmus — the Pope deputed 



208 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 
_ . . Contarini to meet the Protestants at the Diet 

Contanni 

and Meianch- of Ratisbon, and to try whether a reconcilia- 
make peace tion could be arranged with them. He was 
of RatSbon. met b y the £ entle Melanchthon (Luther dis- 
trusting the whole thing and keeping away), 
and they agreed upon the doctrine of justification by 
faith as the basis of reunion. For a moment a peace 
seemed within reach. But alas ! other motives came in 
But the Pope on the Pope's side. Francis I. urged upon 
draws back. him that concord and unity in Germany 

would make the Emperor — their common enemy — dan- 
gerously strong ; and so Paul III. drew back. 

On the other side, Luther scented mischief in any 
And Luther peace with Rome. It was too good to be 
true ; and he even hinted that the devil was 
somewhere and somehow at work in it. 
Eve thin ^° ever Y^ n S was left over for settlement 

left over till at the council which now at length the Pope 
of Trent. was to convene — the famous Council of Trent. 

But meanwhile another power came upon the stage, 
which was destined to take the reins out of the hands 
of the Italian mediating reformers, to close the door for 
reconciliation forever, and to reform what was left of the 
Catholic Church on the narrow basis of reaction. 

{b) The New Order of the Society of Jesus (1540). 

Ignatius Loyola, a young Spanish knight of noble fa- 
mily, was born in 1491, and so was eight years younger 
. T than Luther. He was a soldier in the army 

Ignatius Loy- 
ola, a Spanish of Spain — that land in which the national 

wars against the Moors had kept up chivalry 

and the spirit of the old crusaders, in which knights still 

fought for the Cross against the ' Infidel,' and whose citi- 



ch. v. Reform within the Catholic Church. 209 

zens more than any others felt the romance of the con- 
nexion with the New World. 

Loyola was thirty years old, fighting in the Spanish 
army against an insurrection in Navarre, secretly aided 
by the French, just after the Diet of Worms, 
when his leg was shattered by a cannon in 1521 
ball. The one hope of the young knight 
was such a recovery as would let him return to his sol- 
dier's life and pursue his knightly career. He submitted 
to two cruel operations in this hope, but alas, in vain. 
After racking torture and fever, which brought him near 
to the grave, he survived to find his contracted limb still 
a bar to his hopes. As he lay upon his couch in pain 
and fever, he changed the scheme of his 
life. He resolved to become a soldier — a come a general 
general— in another army, under a higher slimsTSad 
king, fighting for the cross. Legends of the of soldiers - 
saints inspired his imagination with dreams still more 
romantic than the tales of knight-errantry. In his deli- 
rium his fevered eye saw visions of the Virgin, and thus 
he thought he received divine commission to pursue his 
plan. He would be a true son of the Church, the sworn 
enemy of her enemies, be they heretics, Jews, or infidels. 
His creed should be the soldier's creed — obedience to 
superiors, hard endurance, and dauntless courage. The 
holy saints of the legends were his patterns. He prepared 
himself for his work, as they did, by fastings and the se- 
verest austerities. His food was bread and water and 
herbs, his girdle sometimes an iron chain, 
sometimes prickly briars, his work humble austerities, 
service of the lowest kind, such as dressing 
the foulest wounds in the hospitals. Then he dwelt for 
a while in a cavern in solitude, and fasted till he saw vi- 
sions again, and fancied he had communications with 



2 to Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

heaven. And now he had perfected his plan — a soldier's 
plan — to found a religious army, perfect in discipline, in 

every soldier of which should be absolute 
found the devotion to one end, absolute obedience to 

jSit 6 ' 1- of his superior, with no human ties to hinder 

and no objects to divert him from the service 
required. It was in fact to be a new monastic order, and 
to be called the Society of Jesus. 

He must first prepare himself for his generalship by 

years of study. He began at a common 

To prepare '■ J , __ . . , 

himself studies school, and then went to the University of 

at the Uni ver- -p, ■ 
sity of Paris. x'ariS. 

The next thing was to get round him a few 
others like himself, and so to form the nucleus of his 
army. They must be men of power and metal, and all 
the better if of noble blood and high position. 

There was a young Spanish noble at the university of 
Paris named Francis Xavier. While Loyola 

At Paris meets . . , . . . 

Francis was studying at the university he came in 

Xavier. contact with him. He watched him, read 

his mind and character, and then set himself to work to 
make his own. Xavier sought fame and applause, and 
just as he got it, Loyola would come in his way with 
the solemn question, 'What shall it profit if a man 
gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?' Loyola 
would help him to new triumphs, but as often as they 
came would come to him again from Loyola the solemn 
question, ' What shall it profit ?' At last the proud spirit 
of the Spanish noble yielded to the spell. Xavier be- 
came a disciple of Loyola ; rivalled him in 

Xavier be- . . A , 

comes a austerities, and ere long became the mis- 

hap e. sionary of the Society, carrying his cross, his 

Bible, breviary and wallet to India and the Indian Isles, 
and even to Japan and China, till at last he laid down 



CH. v. Reform within the Catholic Church, 211 

his life after eleven long years of heroic la- And the great 
bour, stretched on the sand of the sea-shore J esuit mission- 

' ary to the ln- 

of a lonely island in the Chinese seas, with dies, China, 

.... . r ... . and Japan. 

his cross m his hand, tears of holy joy m 

his eyes, and uttering the words, ' In Thee have I put 

my trust, let me never be confounded.' 

Of such stuff were the first Jesuits made — a type of 
human nature which, rising up as it did just then, was 
of immense import to the future of the Catholic Church. 
It was in truth a reaction from the looseness both of 
morals and creed which had marked the recent condi- 
tion of the Church. These men were pious, _ 

r Character of 

earnest, and devoted to the Church, be- the Jesuits, 
cause their minds were cast . in a mould 
which allowed them still to believe in her pretensions. 
They had all the piety, fervour, energy, and boldness of 
the Protestant Reformers, but their reform took another 
direction. Instead of going back to St. Augustine as 
their exponent of the Bible, they took St. Francis and 
the mediaeval saints as their models, and rested with ab- 
solute faith on the authority of the mediaeval Church. 
To reform the Catholic Church to mediaeval standards 
by the formation of a new monastic order, having for its 
corner-stone the absolute surrender of free inquiry and 
free thought, and absolute obedience to supreme eccle- 
siastical authority — this was the project of m . 

, . V> r Their suc- 

Loyola. It was not abortive. Before its cess and 
founder died he had succeeded in founding 
more than a hundred Jesuit colleges or houses for train- 
ing Jesuits, and an immense number of educational es- 
tablishments under their influence. He had many thou- 
sands of Jesuits in the rank and file of his order. He 
had divided Europe, India, Africa, and Brazil into twelve 
Jesuit provinces, in each of which he had his Jesuit offi- 



212 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

cer, whilst he, their general, residing at Rome, wielded 
an influence over the world rivaling, if it did not exceed 
in power, that of popes and kings. Its very success was 
the cause of its ultimate doom. The nations of Europe, 
after the experience of some generations, 

Causes of its ■ r • i i • • i r 

ultimate found it to interfere with their national free- 

unpopu anty. ^ om ^ as fa e y na( j d one tne \^ ecclesiastical 

empire of Rome. They ultimately banished the Jesuits 
because of their power and because their presence and 
their plots endangered the safety of the state. But as 
yet the Society of Jesus was young, and had its work 
before it. The Order received Papal sanction in 1 540. 

(<r) The Council of Trent {1545— 1555). 

The Council of Trent was opened in 1545. Cardinal 

Contarini, who had been the Pope's confidant in matters 

., , relating to the Council, died before it assem- 
Council of ° _ ,■_,', ^ 

Trent meets bled. But Cardinal Pole, Contarini the 

m 1545- younger, and others of the mediating party, 

were members of the Council. They took the same line 

as at Ratisbon, and urged the doctrine of justification by 

faith as common Christian ground. But the Jesuits in 

__ T . the Council, under the instruction of Loyola, 

I he Jesuits * 

prevail over opposed it with all their might. The dispute 
ing Refor-" was long and hot, and even led to personal 
mers ' violence. One holy Father was so angry 

that he seized another by the beard. The Jesuits pre- 
vailed, and carried the decision of the Council their own 
way. Pole, on the plea of ill health, had left the Council, 
and the younger Contarini followed his example. It was 
clear there was to be no reconciliation. The party of 
reaction had gained the day. 

No sooner had the party of reaction taken the lead 
than Cardinal Caraffa (afterwards Pope Paul IV). ob- 



CH. v. Reform within the Catholic Church. 213 

tained powers to introduce into Rome the T 

... . . Inquisition 

Inquisition — that terrible tribunal of perse- introduced 
cution which in Spain had slain and ban- cLrdinaTca* 
ished so many Moors, Jews, and heretics ^^PcT'e 
under the sanction of the zeal of Queen Isa- Paul IV. 
bella. Persecution began, and some of the members oi 
the mediating party were among its first victims. 

This was the work of the Council of Trent at its early 
sessions. Then owing to a disagreement between the 
Pope and Charles V., it was adjourned- for Council ad- 
some years. Paul III. died, and two sue- ^"^under 
ceeding popes, before it really got to work Paul IV - 
again to any purpose under Paul IV. This was in 1555, 
the year in which, after the long struggle between 
Charles V. and Germany, the peace of Augsburg was 
come to, by which the revolt of the Protestant princes 
from Rome was first legally recognized as a thing which 
must be. 

The Council of Trent had now in its later sessions to 
reorganize what was left of the Catholic Church. It 
could not, and did not try to undo the re- _ „ 

"* The Roman 

volts. The Jesuits were the ruling power. Catholic 

Reaction was the order of the day. Cleri- formed in 

cal abuses were corrected, and some sort of Suchmore 

decency enforced. Provisions were made rigid. than 

r , , . r ■ -ir,--, eVer m cree d- 

for the education of priests and for their de- 
votion in future to active duties. But in points of doc- 
trine there was reaction instead of concession. The di- 
vine authority of the Pope was confirmed. The creed 
of the Church was laid down once for all in rigid state- 
ments, which henceforth must be swallowed by the faith- 
ful. Finally, the Inquisition, imported from Spain, was 
extended to other countries, and charged with the sup- 
pression of heretical doctrines. In a word, the rule of 



214 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

the ecclesiastical empire was strengthened, and the 
bonds of the scholastic system tightened; but not for 
Christendom — only for those nations who still acknow- 
ledged the ecclesiastical supremacy of Rome. 

The Church was thus both reformed and narrowed by 
the decrees of the Council of Trent. Henceforth it tole- 
rated within its fold neither the old diversity of doctrine 
on the one hand, nor the old laxity of morals on the 
other hand, and henceforth it was by no means coexten- 
sive with Western Christendom, as it once had been. 
It is now generally called the ' Roman Catholic Church,' 
to distinguish it from the ' Catholic Church ' of the Mid- 
dle Ages, from which it and so many other churches 
have sprung. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE FUTURE OF SPAIN AND FRANCE. 

[a) The Future of Spain. 
Charles V. had inherited the absolute monarchy pre- 
pared for him by Ferdinand and Isabella. 

The strengthening of the central power was needful to 
create a modern nation. But the history of England 
has taught us that the central power may be strong with- 
out being an absolute monarchy. 

, , The vice in the Spanish system was the 

Growth of . r ■'■ 

absolute mon- attempt to seek national power by subject- 
arc yin pain. .^ a ^ classes within the nation to the ab- 
solute will of the monarch. 

This vice was the worm at the root of the greatness of 
Spain, and silently wrought the ruin in which she finds 
herself to-day. 

Philip II., the son and successor of Charles, 
Philip II. _., r ' , , , 

was, like his predecessor, an absolute king. 



ch. vi. The future of Spain. 215 

It was during the period of Spanish supremacy in 
Europe that the Council of Trent decreed In close 
the absolute ecclesiastical supremacy of the ^s^ with 

the P3.D3.cv 

Pope. It was the Spanish Jesuits who had 
brought this about. It was by adopting the Spanish In- 
quisition that the ecclesiastical triumph was to be enforced 
upon the people. And now Philip II. 's aim, 

i -.-,.,,,, Seeks to 

as we have seen, was to establish both the establish 
absolute power of the Spanish throne and Papafsupre- 
the papal supremacy, wherever his rule ex- "^j^ " 
tended, by the sword and the Inquisition. 

England felt this influence in the days of Queen Mary, 
but happily Philip II. 's Spanish Armada failed to con- 
quer England under Elizabeth. He tried 

,.,,,. . , „. T , , , Fatal results 

his fatal policy in the Netherlands, and, as of his policy. 
we have seen, they revolted, made good their revolt 
from both Spain and Rome, and became a free Protest- 
ant nation. He tried the same fatal policy in Spain, and 
with what result ? The Spaniard of to-day points to the 
civil and ecclesiastical despotism of the reign of Philip II. 
(from which, unhappily, Spain could not shake herself 
free, as the Netherlands did) as the point in her history 
when her national life was strangled, her literature began 
to lose its power, her commerce to languish. To fatten 
an absolute monarchy, and armies of officials, soldiers, 
and priests, in course of generations the nation was 
ruined. Spain for a while was big on the map. For a 
while she maintained her supremacy in Europe, but her 
greatness was not the result of her advance on the path 
of modern civilization. It was not the result of true 
national life — the welding together of all classes into a 
compact nation. It rather belonged to the old order of 
things, and so was doomed to decay. 



216 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

[b) The future of France. 
Absolute monarchy answered no better for France 
than for Spain. 

France was a prey during the era to the evils caused 
by the constant wars of Francis I. While the two abso- 
lute monarchs strove for supremacy in Italy, 
salrificeJffo their subjects alike suffered. The reckless- 
Ski™! ness of the ambition of Francis I. showed 
the absolute itself in the way in which, while persecuting 

monarchy J " 

under heresy in France, he was ready to ally him- 

self with the Protestants of Germany, or even 
the Turks, if need be, to gain his military ends. He 
bequeathed his ambition for military glory and supre- 
macy to his successors. 

France, though a Catholic power, fought on the Pro- 
testant side in the Thirty Years' War, and one result of 
it was that the supremacy of Spain ended and that of 
France began. But French, no less than Spanish su- 
premacy, was the growth of absolute monarchy, contrary 
to the true interests of the French nation. It was gradu- 
ally ripening the seeds which were already sown, and 
which bore fruit in the great Revolution of 1789, and in 
the alternate republics and despotisms under 
which her which France has since suffered so much. 

rSnl'rchy The want of common feeling and interest 

was to between the citizens of the towns and pea- 

sants of the rural districts which began so 
early in French history still continues to perplex her ru- 
lers, and so does the lust for military glory and supre- 
macy in Europe which also is an old inheritance of the 
French people. • 

The way in which the Protestant revolution was met 
in France also left scars upon the nation which may be 
traced to-day. . Under Francis I., Calvinism spread in 



ch. vl The future of France. 217 

France among the nobility, whose order had been 
humbled to make way for the absolute mon- Struggle 
archy. This gave rise in the next era to re- Huguenots 
ligious wars, in which some of the Protes- ln France - 
tant nobility headed a rebellion against the Catholic 
throne. These civil wars lasted forty years, and cost 
the lives, it is said, of more than a million Frenchmen. 

In France the persecution of heresy was political as 
well as religious. Political ambition and intrigue, as 
well as religious bigotry, prompted it, and stained the 
pages of French history with crimes unique in their 
blackness. 

The massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572 was the 
diabolical work-of the queen, Catherine de' Massacre of 
Medici, to maintain her political power, fo^"^ " 
She had coquetted with the Huguenots ^t 2 - 
when it served her purpose. She tried to exterminate 
them by the massacre of 20,000 — some say 100,000 — in 
one fatal night. The Edict of Nantes in 

to Toleration 

1598 ended the civil wars and granted a for a time 

_ . . under the 

respite from persecution, but its revocation Edict of 
in 1685 resulted in the banishment cf the Nantes - 
Huguenots from France. Some of them its revoca- 

tion in 1685, 

came to Protestant England, and brought and the ba- 
with them their silk and their looms. Thus t he Hu- 
France by her intolerance lost one arm of ^°f ' who 
her national industry and an important ele- England. 
ment from her national character. The want of cohe* 
sion and unity of interest between various classes in 
France was increased by the banishment of the Hugue- 
nots. There is even now a middle term wanting — a 
missing link — between her religious and her republican 
elements. The Puritans — the religious republicans- 
were that middle term in England. 



♦i 8 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 



CHAPTER VII. 

GENERAL RESULTS OF THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT 
REVOLUTION. 

(a) On the Growth of National Life. 
We have now traced the course of the Protestant revo- 
t . , lution, and marked both its direct results 

Influence of 

the Protest- upon those nations which revolted from 

ant revolu- _. ,...,. . 

tion on na- Rome, and also its indirect results upon 
tiona 1 e. Rome herself and those nations which re- 

mained in allegiance to her ecclesiastical empire. 

The revolution was obviously only partially success- 
Whereitsuc- m l- Where it succeeded *it produced re- 
ceeded. form — the Protestant nations had gained 

one substantial step towards independent national life 
and towards the blending of all classes within them 
into one community. 

Where it failed, it produced, as every unsuccessful 
Where it revolution does, reaction. The Catholic na- 

failed. tions seemed to gain in the outward signs 

of strength by the alliance which resulted between the 
civil and ecclesiastical powers within them. But it was 
an alliance intended to strengthen the absolute power 
of the Crown and of the ecclesiastical empire, and there- 
by all the more to enthrall the people. Henceforth, 
both in France and in Spain, the nation was more than 
ever enthralled under the double despotism of Crown 
and Church. The Inquisition may be taken as the sym- 
bol of the one kind of despotism, and the French Bas- 
tille of the other. The two despotisms acting together 
tended, as we have seen, to destroy national life, to in- 
crease the separation of classes and prevent their being 
welded together by common interests into one commu- 



ch. vii. Results of the Era. 219 

nity. It postponed their progress on the path of modern 
civilization and ended in a series of alternate revolu- 
tions and reactions, out of which it is hard to see a final 
escape. So hard is it for nations to cast off the fruit, 
however bitter, of seeds sown even centuries ago ! 

Where it partially failed and partially succeeded, as in 
Switzerland and Germany, we have seen that it resulted 
in civil wars and in the postponement of the where it 
growth of their national life almost to our ^partly d 
own times. In Switzerland the people were succeeded. 
already free, but in Germany, where serfdom still pre- 
vailed, the emancipation of the peasantry was postponed 
till the beginning of the nineteenth century. 

[b) On the Relations of Nations to each other. 
The Protestant struggle apparently did little or nothing 
to secure progress in civilization in the dealings between 
nations. The events of the era show that the small im- 
notion of universal empire which had the^deatin T 
marked the old order of things was not yet between na- 

. . tions. 

fully given up. The aim after extension of 
empire which went along with it we have noticed 
throughout. The struggle between the two absolute 
monarchies of Spain and France for supremacy in Chris- 
tendom, the efforts of the princes of the House of Haps- 
burg to unite as many countries as they could under 
their rule, the designs that both France and Spain had 
upon Italy, the revived claims of Henry VIII. to the old 
English possessions in France — in all this there was little 
sign of progress from the old to the new order of things. 
Although the Oxford reformers were faithful in enjoining 
upon princes an international policy based The Oxford 
upon the golden rule, and having for its ob- ^nTtened 
ject not the aggrandizement of the prince to in this - 



2 20 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. in. 

but the weal of the nation, the popes and princes still 
preferred to follow the maxims of "the Prince" of 
Machiavelli, rather than those of the " Christian Prince" 
of Erasmus. They still, as Erasmus said, treated the 
people too much as " cattle in the market." 

Nor was the immediate result of the Protestant revo- 
lution any cessation from international strife. For the 
next hundred years there was almost incessant strife 
between Catholic and Protestant powers. 

Though, however, Henry VIII. himself hankered 
But Henry again and again after the realization of the 
VIII. was empty title of King of France ; yet practically 
English king we may say that Henry VIII. 's dreams were 
recovering the last in which English monarchs have 
France. indulged on that subject. 

And though the attempts to urge sounder views on 
international matters did not succeed in this era, yet they 
And Hugo were not made wholly in vain. Before the 
Grotiuswas century was out was born Hugo Grotius, the 
the century father of the present system of international 
law, who was well acquainted with the works 
of Erasmus, and like him rejected Machiavellian prin- 
ciples and sought to base the law of nations upon the 
golden rule. 

[c) Influence on the Growth of National Languages and 
Literature. 

In no point was the effect of tne Protestant struggle 
more clearly marked than in the stride it gave, as it were 
all at once, to the growth of national languages and 
literature. 

In Germany we noticed how Luther and Hutten ap- 
pealed to the people as well as to the learned; how, first 
writing in Latin for scholars, they soon found it needful 



ch. vii. Results of the Era. 221 

to write in German for the people ; how Luther intro- 
duced wood-cuts to make his appeals to the popular ear 
still more vivid and telling. All this promoted the 
growth of a national popular literature. This turning 
from Latin to German was in fact throwing Luther's 
off in one point the yoke of the scholastic J^mnJfix 
system, and was in itself a great step in ad- the character 

- r • 1 rr-i of tne Ger- 

vance for the nation to have taken. The manlan- 
crowning gift of Luther to the German peo- guage - 
pie was in fact his German Bible and his German hymns. 
The earnest vigorous German in which they are written 
fixed the future style of the language. The German 
spoken to-day is the German of Luther's Bible and 
hymns. They have been better known by the German 
people than any other literature, and so have done more 
than perhaps anything else to form the German lan- 
guage, and with it in no small degree the national 
character. 

It was so in some measure in France. Calvin did not 
gain so great a hold on the French nation 
as Luther did on the German, but still his ggjgif of 
French Writings did very much the same writings on me 

, ^ , , T , , French Ian- 

thing for the French language that Luther s guage. 
Bible did for the German. 

In England, too, the same thing is to be marked. The 
fact that the religious controversies of the times were 
carried on by books and pamphlets, not in 

_ . , „ ,. , . , Influence of 

Latin but in English, gave a stimulus to Tindal's New 
English literature, and prepared the way for ^SSifch 011 
the succeeding generations which were to *^ff ion °{ the 

° ° . Bible, and so 

give England her Shakespeare and her Mil- upon the Eng- 
ton. Nor can it be forgotten that the noble 1S anguage- 
English version of the Bible has done as- much as other 
versions in other countries to fix the character of mo 



222 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

dern English. The simplicity, terseness, and power of 
the English version, to which the taste of England, after 
frequent wanderings, again and again returns as to its 
best classical model, we owe, and this should not be 
forgotten, to the poor, persecuted, but noble-minded 
English reformer, William Tindal, who, in his English 
New Testament, set a type which others in completing 
the translation of the whole Bible loyally followed. 

(d) Effect in Stimulating National Education. 

The same movement which promoted so much the 
growth of national language and literature, also did much 
to throw open the gates of knowledge to the people by 
fostering education and schools. 

Savonarola founded schools in Florence. Colet set a 
noble example in England, and the next generation fol- 
lowed it by establishing the grammar-schools 
ed by Savona- which so often bear the name of King Ed- 
roia, Colet and warc l VI. Luther and the Protestant Ger- 

others, Luther, 

Calvin, Knox, man states established common schools. 
Fathers, and Calvin did the same thing in Geneva, and 
Jesuits. Calvin's disciple, John Knox, in Scotland. 

Finally, the Pilgrim Fathers carried the same 
zeal for education to their colonies in New England. 
Even the Jesuits made a great point of education, and 
became noted wherever they went for their educational 
establishments. So that both in Catholic and Protestant 
countries a great stimulus was given to popular education 
during the era, while the fact that at least some of the 
property of the dissolved monasteries was diverted to 
educational purposes in connexion with the Universities 
and otherwise, gave a somewhat similar stimulus also to 
higher education. 



ch. vii. Results of the Era. 223 

[/) Influence on Domestic Life. 

There are few things, if any, more important to the 
steady growth of a free nation than the maintenance of 
domestic virtues and the sanctities of family life. 

The domestic instincts, more than any others, were the 
first germs of national life. In Teutonic nations espe- 
cially the powerful ties of family life, widen- Po i itical im _ 
ing in their sphere extended from the family P° m anc . e of 
to the tribe, from the tribe to the nation, in- life, 
troducing law and order and peaceful relations within 
the sphere embraced by them. 

Now the domestic virtues of nations had ^ 

. Danger to it 

been in great danger of decay, and no from the ex- 
doubt had suffered enormously through the countrVof a 
influence of so large a body of clergy, monks, J^ e ^j^ 
and nuns in a forced state of celibacy. 

This system sapped the foundations of domestic life 
by holding up the married state as lower in virtue than 
that of celibacy, by cutting off so large a number of 
people from the natural influences of home-life, and still 
further by promoting in a terrible degree immorality and 
crime. 

The dissolution of the monasteries and _. , . 

. . r , . r , , . , Dissolution 

permission of the marriage of the parochial of monaste- 
clergy were in themselves steps gained in m lsston txT" 
civilization of great importance in a moral the cler sy to 

r marry, a step 

and political, as well as in a religious point in civilization. 
of view. 

(/) Influence on Popular Religion. 

In yet another way did the Protestant revolution suc- 
ceed in promoting national life and the aims of Christian 
civilization. 



.124 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. ill. 

It made religion less a thing of the clergy and more a 
thing of the people. It gave the people religious ser- 
m , „ vices in their own languages instead of in 

The Protes- to & 

tantmove- an unknown tongue. By placing withm 
Urizedre"" their reach the Christian Scriptures in their 
hgion, own i an g Ua g e it led them to think for them- 

selves, and to be directly influenced by Christianity as 
taught by its founder and apostles. It tended to 
strengthen individual conviction and conscience, and so. 
ultimately it led, though with many drawbacks, to fur- 
ther steps being gained towards freedom of thought. 

It is well to mark also that this bringing of religion 

nearer home to the individual conscience of the masses 

of the people, and cultivation of individual 

and brought x . \ 

it into har- responsibility rather than reliance on a 
true Chris- priesthood or a church, tended to bring it 
modern 111 more into harmony, not only with the ten- 

civilization, dencies of modern civilization but also with 
the essential character of Christianity itself, as conceived 
by its founder and his apostles, and so to make it once 
more the great civilizing influence which from the rirst 
it was intended to be. 

Christianity was without doubt the power which more 
than anything else produced the great movement of the 
.„ , era, and turned the civilization of the future 

Modern ■■•-.. ■ '-■ - 

civilization into the course we have described. The 
chief charac- mere humanists had not succeeded in im- 
Christtanity pressing the semi-pagan stamp of their phi- 
losophy upon it. Had they done so the 
principle of the old Roman civilization — the good of the 
few at the expense of the many — might have marked 
the civilization of the future as it had done that of the 
past. But we have seen it was the men of deepest 
Christian convictions — the religious reformers — who sue- 



ch. vii. Results of the Era. 225 

ceeded in giving their impress to the era. It is thus to 
Christianity more than to anything else that we owe the 
direction given in the era to modern civilization, its char- 
acteristic aim to attain the highest good for the whole 
community. 

{g) Want of Progress in Toleration. 

There was one thing especially in which there seemed 
to be reaction rather than progress during the era, viz. in 
toleration. 

We said that one great work of the era was to set 
men's minds free from ecclesiastical and scholastic thral- 
dom — to set both science and religion free, for without 
this freedom there could be no real progress in civiliza- 
tion. 

In fact, an immense number of minds had got free 
from that particular ecclesiastical and scholastic thral- 
dom against which they had rebelled in be- ' 

. _, , • , , . . . , _ Change from 

coming Protestant. And this in itself was Catholic to 
no small result. But what has already been creeds was 
said must have made it clear that the Pro- char, s e from 

one rigid 

testant reformers, in adopting the theology scholastic 

r* • • • • • creed to 

of St. Augustine, and insisting upon their another 
followers adopting the new Protestant equa y ngl ' 
creeds, did but appeal from the scholastic standards of 
their day to others just as rigid. 

The Oxford Reformers had aimed at leaving people 
open to form their own honest judgment on various 
points of theology and practice, according „ „ 

r . . , Small connex- 

to their own consciences, and urged that ion between 
people with different opinions and practice don™?§iought 
might be members of the same Christian *"£ ^re ing 
Church, have charity one towards another, 
and agree to differ without quarrelling. But how hard a 
Q 



226 Results of the Protestant Revolution. pt. m. 

thing it was to get people to do this we see from the case 
of Sir Thomas More himself, who, though he had advo- 
cated toleration in his 'Utopia,' yet afterwards, seeing 
the anarchy Protestantism had led to on the Continent, 
and fearing its spreading to England, became himself a 
persecutor. We must not be surprised after this that the 
(Protestant Reformers failed also in the same respect. It 
is strange to see how little connexion there seems to be 
between claiming freedom of thought and conceding it 
to others. 

Lutherans persecuted Catholics as well as Catholics 
Protestants ; and, worse still, they persecuted their fel- 
low-Protestants who followed Zwingle and Calvin rathei 
than Luther. So Calvin put Servetus to death, and ex- 
So persecution ercised a thoroughly intolerant rule in 
the persecuted Geneva. So the English Government, after 
tolerant. ^g revo lt from Rome, persecuted Protes- 

tants, and soon after ordered by statute practices which 
a few years before they had condemned. So the Catho- 
lic Government of Queen Mary shed the blood of Pro- 
testants again. So the English Protestant Church of 
after generations persecuted the Puritans. So finally, 
the Puritans, fleeing from persecution to New England, 
put people to death for no other crime than that they 
honestly preached doctrines differing from their own ! 
Looking at these facts, one would certainly say that the 
Protestant struggle had not made men more tolerant ! 

And yet, in spite of this temporary failure, toleration 

was a distant fruit of the great movement we have 

traced. In this era its first seeds were 

Yet toleration 

was after all sown. Sir Thomas More s ' Utopia was 

mate resuits^f perhaps the first clear statement of. the doc- 

revoTudcm^ 111 trme °f toleration. The works of Erasmus 

did something, probably more than is 



CH. vil. Results of the Era. 227 

known, to prepare the minds of men for its ultimate 
adoption. The strength of conscientious conviction 
which Protestantism created made men claim freedom 
as a right, and after all, the men who were fighting the 
battle of toleration with most effect, were the men whose 
strength of conscientious conviction made them endure 
persecution rather than surrender their freedom of con- 
science, even though they themselves, under other cir- 
cumstances, might have been persecutors. 

(h) The Causes why the Success of the Era was so partial. 

We might, in view simply of its immediate results — 
the wars and bloodshed, and anarchy, persecutions, and 
heartburnings which came out of it — be inclined to re- 
gard the failures of the era of the Protestant revolution 
as greater than the good we owe to it. 

This would be false. It would be to forget that pro- 
gress in civilization is of necessity like that „ 

Progress 

of the advancing tide, made up of ebbs and must be 
flows. It is well also to note clearly the gra ua ' 
cause of the failures, and especially of those of which we 
have just been speaking. 

Let us ask ourselves why did not the human mind in 
this era free itself from its trammels, claim its true 
freedom, and concede it to everyone ? Limited by 
The answer is, that it was impossible. The meiSSw- 
range of knowledge was too narrow. Men's ledge - 
minds could not take a broader view of things than the 
horizon of their knowledge let them. 

Let us try to realize what were the bounds of their 
knowledge in some directions. 

They knew that the earth is a globe, and in their own 
time Magellan, for the first time, had sailed round it 



228 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.. 
But they thought the earth was in the centre 

Limited view ",".''' , , nil ■, 

ofth^uni- of the universe, and that all the heavenly 

bodies move round it every twenty-four 
hours. The notion that it was the earth that moved they 
The earth thought to be absurd.' We should see the 

tobe^the 1 motion, they said. At the rate it would 
centre. have to move, it would leave the clouds be- 

hind it as it went, and towers and church steeples 
would be thrown down by the violence of so rapid a 
motion ! 

So the earth stands still, they maintained in the centre 
of the universe. The heavenly bodies were supposed 
The crystal- to rotate on what were called crystalline 
line spheres. spheres. The first was the sphere of the 
moon — all things confined within it were called sublunary 
things. They were supposed by some to be under such 
pressure as made the heaviest things all tend towards 
the centre, while the lightest things tended upwards. It 
was sometimes said that it was in the nature of fire and 
air to rise, while it was the nature of water and earth to 
fall towards the centre. In rough ways like these they 
tried to account for the facts which are now attributed to 
the force of gravitation. The spheres beyond the moon 
were called celestial spheres. First, they thought, came 
those of Mercury, Venus, and the Sun, then in order 
those of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn ; then that of the fixed 
stars, and, outside all, a ninth sphere, called primum 
mobile, which gave motion to all the others. They be- 
Heaven lieved further, in a vague way, that heaven 

beyond. came beyond. Theologians speculated 

upon what sort of a sphere that of heaven must be, and 
Erasmus, in his ' Praise of Folly,' laughed at their 
•creating new spheres at pleasure, this the largest and 
most beautiful being added that, forsooth, happy spirits 



ch. vii. Results of the Era. 229 

might have room enough to take a walk, to spread their 
feasts', or play at ball.' 

Such was the universe of spheres, one within the 
other, which they thought all moved round the earth in 
the centre every twenty-four hours. It was The motions 
a small thing altogether, compared with the regarded ereS 
vastly wider and grander universe, a little with awe » 
bit of which modern science has revealed to us, but it 
was a marvellous universe still, and its mysteries filled 
them with awe when they thought of it. 

When asked questions about it, some wise men like 
Erasmus answered, ' God only knows.' But more super- 
stitious minds gave far different answers. an di n popu- 
Luther, who saw the action of the Devil in lar supersti- 

tion referred 

every accident which befell him, stood to angels, 
aghast at the magic motions of the celestial spheres, as 
' no doubt done by some angel.' Many wise 
men still believed in astrology. They could 
not bring themselves to believe that the stars and planets, 
looking down upon our world, had not some magic 
meaning. When comets came, they saw in them omi~ 
nous presages of coming events. Pico and Ficino, 
Colet, Erasmus, and More had all tried to L augri ed at 
laugh people out of belief in astrology, by some, but 
Luther, too, laughed at it, but Melanchthon by others, 
still held on to the old belief in spite of Luther's argu- 
ments and jests. How can there be anything in astro- 
logy, Luther used to say to him, since Jacob and Esau 
were born under the same star ! 

The same kind of superstition which attributed the 
motions of the planets to angels, and magic influence on 
the affairs of men to the stars, made men 

. n ... . . Belief in 

the more readily believe m visions and in- visions and 
spirations, such as we have seen in the case mspira 101 



?$o Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi. 

of the wilder reformers from Savonarola down to Miin- 
zer and Loyola. Luther himself was remarkably free 
from these things — he never claimed either visions or in- 
spirations, as the wilder prophets did ; but, as an in- 
stance of how superstitious even he was, it may be men- 
tioned that he and Melanchthon devoutly believed that 
a monster had been found in the Tiber, with 

and in prodi- ,.,",,- , r i 

gies. the head of an ass, the body of a man, and 

the claws of a bird. After searching their Bibles to find 
out what the prodigy meant, they concluded that it was 
one of the signs and wonders which were to precede 
the fall of the papacy, and published a pamphlet about 
it. 

Luther again, and probably everybody else, believed 
in witchcraft. Hundreds and thousands of poor wretches 
TT . , were burned for the supposed crime of hav- 

Universal . x x 

belief in ing sold themselves to the powers of evil, 

and having held communion with evil 

spirits. And stranger still is it that the number of witches 

,,,. , burned was rapidly on the increase. There 

Witches as . 

well as here- were more witches burned in the 16th cen- 

tics burned. , . , 

tury than in any previous one, and more 
still in the next. 

Heresy and witchcraft were looked upon as nearly 
allied, and probably the zeal against both grew together. 
Nor was the cruel death allotted to these supposed crimes 
out of proportion to that of others. Thousands and 
thousands of people were hung in England for no other 
crime but that of vagrancy and ' sturdy begging.' The 

system of criminal law was everywhere 
criminal law brutal. Soon after the Peasants' War, the 

Prince Bishop of Bamberg published a 
popular criminal law book for the benefit of his subjects 
< — his poor crushed peasantry among others — in which 



ch. vii. Results of the Era. 231 

were inserted wood-cuts of thumb-screws, the rack, the 
gallows, the stake, pincers for pulling out the tongue, 
men with their eyes put out or their heads cut off, or 
mangled on the wheel, or suspended by the arms with 
weights hung on their feet, and so on, and then, to add 
the terrors of another world (as if these humanly in- 
flicted tortures were not enough), there was a blasphe- 
mous picture representing the day of judgment, and the 
hobgoblins carrying off their victims to hell. The Prince 
Bishop, we may suppose, had learned a lesson from 
Luther, and produced, as he thought, a good book for 
the laity, meant, not like Luther's, to dispel men's fears 
of the Pope, but to frighten his poor subjects into sub- 
mission to his episcopal and princely authority. This 
may be taken as an example both of the way in which 
civil and ecclesiastical power were sometimes blended 
together, and of the brutality of the times. 

Such an age was not ready for wider views. Further 
knowledge of the laws of nature must come • 

, ' S . . . , . The age not 

before popular superstitions could be re- prepared for 
moved, and until this was done it would be 
in vain to look for much progress in toleration and free- 
dom of thought. 

(i) Beginning of Progress in Scie?itific Inquiry. 

Nevertheless the era of which we have spoken was 
the beginning of the era of freedom. From it dated a 
great awaking of human thought. Its great „ . 

U- 1 \r u A A Beginning of 

geographical discoverers had opened new scientific in- 
fields for scientific inquiry. Not only had quiry " 
navigators been round the world, but they had seen as 
it were the rest of the sky. They had seen the south 
polestar and the Southern Cross in their voyages round 
the Cape of Good Hope. Thus was not only their 



232 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. ill. 

geographical but also their astronomical knowledge 
widened. 

A beginning of truer and wider views of the universe 
was almost a natural consequence, but to attain to it 
scholastic and even ecclesiastical bonds had to be 
loosened. A scientific Luther was wanted to burst 
through them, but the age did not produce such a man. 
Nevertheless it did produce one who silently lived and 
worked timidly to demonstrate that the motions of the 
planets and the moon can only be fully accounted for on 
the hypothesis that the sun and not the earth is the cen- 
tre of the solar system, that the moon is a satellite of 
the earth, and that the sphere of the fixed stars is at an 
immense distance from the farthest of the planetary 
spheres. Our present theory of the solar system is still 
sometimes called after his name, Copernican, though it 
is far more truly called after Newton. 

Nicolas Copernicus died two years before Luther. 

His story is that of a brave life, and one which may 

well be set by the side of that of other 

Nicolas Co- 

pemicus. great men of the era. Educated at the 

University of Cracow, in Poland, he after- 
wards proceeded to Rome, and studied under the best 
astronomer of the day. Then he spent a long life in 
working out his grand scientific problem from careful 
observations and according to the best lights he could 
get. He was loyal to the Church. He did not want to 
be a heretic, and yet the great truth he had to tell was 
contrary to the teaching of the Church. For thirty-six 
years — all the time the Protestant struggle was raging — - 
he was working at the immortal book in which his ob- 
servations and discoveries were embodied, but he did 
not venture to publish it till under Paul III. there was a 
lull in the ecclesiastical storm. He was then an old man. 



ch. viii. Economic Results of the Era. 233 

in broken health ; his book was in the 
printer's hands when he was on his death- n< £ S pubnlhed 
bed. All he cared for now was to see it gs ^eaTh-bed! 
safe in print before he died. He waited at 
death's door day after day. At last the printer's mes- 
senger came with the printed book. He received it with 
tears in his eyes, composed himself and died. This 
was in 1543, and he was seventy years old. He was fol- 
lowed by other scientific discoverers — Tycho Brahe, 
Kepler, and Galileo. Thus the brave life of Copernicus 
may be taken as marking the epoch when scientific 
thought and inquiry began to free itself from theologi- 
cal trammels and to seek to discover»the laws of nature 
by a simple, childlike, and careful observation of facts. 
But necessarily many generations must pass away before 
men became used to scientific modes of research and of 
thought. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ECONOMIC RESULTS OF THE ERA. 

Amongst the powers which belonged to the old order 
of things, and which were going out, the feudal system 
was mentioned as silently giving way under R h f h 
the combined influence of the growth of the era on what re- 

, . A , j ,. . r mained of the 

central power m the modern nations and of f eu d a i system. 
commerce. 

The results of the era in hastening the dissolution of 
the feudal system require a few words of further expla- 
nation. 

In Germany, we have seen, serfdom — the essential of 
which, it will be remembered, was services of forced 



234 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. ill. 
T _ personal labor in return for occupation of 

In Germany x r 

personal ser- land — remained unchanged, except for the 
tinued.° n worse, after the Peasants' War, and lasted 

on till the beginning of the present cen- 
tury. 
In France serfdom was a thing of the past, but there 
In France remained numberless feudal rents and pay- 

feudal rents ments made chiefly in kind [i. e. in produce 
chiefly in kind of the land) which the peasantry went on 

continued till . .,. _ _ . _ , _ 

1798. paying till the French Revolution of 1798. 

In England serfdom was gone, but had left behind it 
fixed rents in money instead of the old feudal payments 
, • . , in services or in kind. These rents were 

In England . . 

feudal rents originally nearly equal to the annual value 
infixed money of the land. But an economic cause came 
payments. intQ play during the era which, while it did 

not help the German peasant nor the French peasant who 
paid his rent in kind, lessened the burden of 

Effect of the r 

discovery of the English peasant's rent so much as to 
mines hTthe change his position gradually into that of an 

New World. absolute owner . 

This economic cause was the discovery of the silver 
and gold mines in the New World. 

It made silver more plentiful, and therefore cheaper in 
proportion to other things, such as corn and land. In 
other words, it increased the price in pence and shillings 
™_ * ,, ■ 1- of almost everything. A penny or a shilling 

The fall in the J ° x 

value of money would not buy so much corn after as before 

caused a great . . . . ^ t • 

rise in prices, the new mines were discovered ; and as in 
England Tudor monarchs at the same time 
for their own purposes, lessened the weight of silver in 
the penny and shilling by about one-third, the effect of 
the increased plenty of silver was made all the greater ; 
6s, would buy a quarter of wheat at the beginning of the 



CH. vin. Economic Results of the Era. 235 

century, it took 38.?. 6d. to buy a quarter of wheat at the 
end of it. The annual value of land was about Ad. per 
acre at the beginning of the century, 30^. at the end of it. 
The German peasant was not helped by this, for he 
had to work just as many hours a day for his feudal 
landlord at the end as at the beginning of 

° This aid not 

the century. ■ lessen the Ger- 

The French peasant, so far as he paid in ^rvices^^ 1 '~ 
produce, was not helped by it, because the Nor the 
price of his produce had increased as fast as French pea- 

\ L . , sant s rents in 

the value of the land, and his rent remained produce. 
the same burden as before. 

But the English peasant, who in the year 1500 
paid Ad. an acre fixed rent for his land, which was then 
worth about Ad. an acre in the market, _ . , , 

^ But it reduced 

found himself in 1600, if he still held on to the burden of 

his land, still paying only Ad. an acre, while peLants'rents 

his land was worth in the market six, seven, ^ t h orv^th of 

or eight times as much as that. His burden the value of 

. _ their land. 

of rent was reduced to £th or £th of what it This would 

, , have made 

Used tO DC them peasant 

Had the English peasantry held on to ^Ttheyheid 
their land as the German and French pea- p n V 3 their 

\ land. But their 

sants did, they would thus have grown into tendency was 

.. .to leave their 

peasant proprietors, paying very small nomi- i anc < an d be- 
nal rents for their land. But other economic f^|^ oureis 
causes were at work, tending to loosen them 
from their little holdings and make them labourers for 
wages. The growth of commerce and manufactures at- 
tracted them to the towns, the large farms of men with 
capital more and more took the place of the little peasant 
holdings, and thus began the present state of things in 
which England differs so much from other countries. 
There were perhaps, in the year 1500, about half a 



236 Results of the Protestant Revolution. FT. ill* 



Change from 
peasant pro- 
prietorship 
of land or 
of looms to 
labour for 
wages, 



million families in England living by the land, and most 
were, or had been, farming some little bit of 
land for themselves. Perhaps there were not 
so many as a quarter of a million families 
earning their living by trade or manufactures 
in the towns, and most of them owning their 
own workshops or looms. 
The half million agricultural families have now grown 
into about a million. These no longer are occupiers of 
land, but are mostly working for wages for a few hun- 
dred thousand farmers. But in the meantime the two 
or three hundred thousand families living by trade and 
manufactures have increased to 3,000,000, and these 
again, as a general rule, like their agricultural brethren, 
have become workers for wages, and no longer are 
owners of their own workshops and looms. 

We probably owe this to the growth of capital and 
commercial enterprise, stimulated by the increased profit 
which comes from division of labour, and 
doing things on a large scale by machinery 
rather than on a small scale as of old by 
hand labour. But what we have to mark 
here is that the beginnings of these great 
changes were already at work in the era of 
which we have been speaking, and that in their course 
the last remains of the old feudal system have been demo- 
lished in England. We only see in England now traces 
of a sort of mock-feudalism in the deer 
forests and game preserves, and antiquated 
forms and customs still clinging to the laws 
of land tenure. These things are survivals 
of a system which once had life, but which 
belonged to the old order of things. In the 
1 6th century it was already fast dying out 



chiefly the 
result of the 
growth of 
commerce 
and capital, 
and the use 
of machinery 



These changes 
had begun 
in the 16th 
century, and 
they com- 
pleted the- 
silent down- 
fall of the 
feudal system 
in England. 



ch. viii. Conclusion. 237 

to make way for commercial enterprise and all that 
belongs to the new order of things — an order of things 
which has multiplied by six or seven the population of 
England, and peopled with about an equal additional 
number of Englishmen those great colonies for which 
the maritime enterprise of the 16th century first opened 
the way. 



CONCLUSION. 



In the introductory chapter we said that the passage 
from the old decaying form of civilization to the new, 
better, and stronger one, involved a change which must 
needs take place slowly and by degrees ; but that in the 
era under review was to be the crisis of the change — the 
final struggle between the two forces. 

We have now traced the main lines of the history of 
this crisis, and tried to point out its connexion with the 
future as well as with the past. We have seen that 
the Protestant revolution was but one wave 
of the advancing tide of modern civilization. t ant revoiu- 
It was a great revolutionary wave, the on- {fegimdngof 
ward swell of which, beginning with the f ? reat rev °- 

° lutionary 

refusal of reform at the Diet of Worms, pro- wave which 
duced the Peasants' War and the Sack of French 
Rome, swept on through the revolt of the g 6 ™^ 011 
Netherlands, the Thirty Years' War, the 
Puritan Revolution in England under Oliver Cromwell, 
the formation of the great independent American re- 
public, until it came to a head and broke in all the 
terrors of the French Revolution. 

It is impossible not to see in the course of the events 
of this remarkable period an onward movement as 



338 Results of the Protestant Revolution, ft. hi. 



irresistible and certain in its ultimate pro 
gress as that of the geological changes which 
have passed over the physical world. 

It is in vain to speculate upon what might 
have been the result of the concession of 
broad measures of reform everywhere (as in 
England) whilst yet there was time ; but in 
view of the bloodshed and misery which, humanly 
speaking, might have been spared, who can fail to be 
impressed with the terrible responsibility, in 
the eye of history, resting upon those by 
whom in the 16th century, at the time of the 
crisis, the reform was refused ? They were 
utterly powerless, indeed, to stop the ultimate 
flow of the tide, but they had the terrible 
power to turn, what might otherwise have 
been a steady and peaceful stream, into a turbulent and 
devastating flood. They had the terrible power, and 
they used it, to involve their own and ten succeeding 
generations in the turmoils of revolution. 



The move- 
ment was 
inevitable, 
and might 
have been 
peacefully 
met and 
aided by 
timely re- 
forms. 



But the 
refusal of 
reform at the 
time of the 
crisis in- 
volved ten 
generations 
in the 
turmoils of 
revolution. 



NOTES ON BOOKS IN ENGLISH RELATING 
TO THE REFORMATION. 



The term " Reformation" is used by historical writers 
in two meanings. It quite frequently denotes the reli- 
gious movement, which began under the auspices of 
Luther, Calvin, Cranmer and other leaders, and in- 
volved an emancipation from the rule of the Papacy, 
and an important change in the interpretation of the 
Gospel, as well as in the rites of Christian worship. 
The Reformation, as thus regarded, is an exclusively 
religious and ecclesiastical revolution. As such, it 
forms a portion of the history of Christianity and the 
Church. At the same time, Protestantism, as a religious 
system, was partly dependent for its origin on circum- 
stances which properly fall within the province of secu- 
lar history ; and the progress of Protestantism, and of 
the conflict with the Papacy, is inextricably connected 
with the general course of European affairs. Hence, 
the general condition of society at the opening of the 
sixteenth century, the causes other than religious which 
prepared for the outbreaking of the great Protest against 
Rome, and the events of political history which link 
themselves to the religious Reform, must fall under the 
notice of a historian who takes a comprehensive view 
of his subject. 

But the term "Reformation" is frequently used with 
more latitude as a convenient designation for the open- 
ing era of modern history, — the history of the post- 
mediaeval times. While the religious reform was one 

239 



240 Notes on Books in English 

leading and defining characteristic of the new era, it 
was not the sole peculiarity that distinguished it. On 
the contrary, various and complex elements, appear in 
the modern as distinguished from the mediaeval period. 
Events like the growth of monarchy, the spread of Com- 
merce, the new birth of Art, the Revival of Learning, are 
essential features in that form of society which gradually 
arose, and followed upon the Middle Ages. The histo- 
rian who undertakes to describe the era as a whole must 
give its proper place to each of these new elements. 
He must trace each to its sources, and form an estimate 
of the reciprocal influence and collective effect of each 
of these features of society, as it emerged from the 
mediaeval condition. But he will, under such a plan, 
still be obliged to give a central place to the religious 
movement, both in the centuries which preceded Luther, 
and in the age contemporaneous with him. The Pro- 
testant religion cannot be considered as an incident; 
it must be treated as a vital, as the most commanding, 
fact in the new epoch. So that whether the Reforma- 
tion is taken in the more special sense to which we first 
adverted, or in the more comprehensive meaning, the 
same facts come under the survey of the historian. The 
difference is chiefly in the point of view from which 
these facts are regarded, which will of course determine 
their grouping. As regards the mediaeval period, secu- 
lar history and ecclesiastical history are inseparable. 
Neither can be studied apart from the other. If a divi- 
sion is more possible as relates to the modern era, still 
even here, one class of phenomena are so closely asso- 
ciated with another, that ecclesiastical history cannot be 
understood apart from secular, nor can secular history 
be adequately studied apart from ecclesiastical. The 
life of nations, as of men, is one. 



Relating to the Reformation. 241 

In the following list of some of the most useful works 
to be found in English on the Reformation, general 
literary works, as well as distinctively ecclesiastical wri- 
ters, are included. 

I. The Period before Luther. On WicklifFe, the Re- 
forming Councils, and the beginnings of the Revival of 
Learning, the last two (viith and viiith) volumes of Mil- 
man's Latin Christianity are valuable. The fifth vol- 
ume of the same work describes the Waldenses and 
other sects, of an earlier date. Ullmann's Reformers 
before the Reformation (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1855) gives 
an excellent account of the theological and religious 
forerunners of Luther, especially in Germany. Gillett's 
Life and Times of John Huss (2 vols., 1 871) is a reada- 
ble narrative of the career of the Bohemian Reformer. 
Villari's Life of Savonarola is a thorough biography (2 
vols., 1873). With it may be read George Eliot's (Mrs. 
Lewes's) Romola. The most recent Life of Erasmus is 
by Drummond (2 vols., 1873). Milman's Article on 
Erasmus {Quart. Rev., No. ccxi., and in his collected 
Essays) is an elaborate and instructive discussion. Jor- 
tin's Life of Erasmus is a learned, but at the same time, 
an interesting biography, abounding in extracts from 
the writings of Erasmus. Upon Erasmus and his asso- 
ciates, the friends of the New Learning, in England, we 
have Seebohm's The Oxford Reformers of 14QZ (Lon- 
don, 1869). The literature of the age prior to Luther is 
described in the work of Hallam, Introduction to th,e Lit. 
of Europe i?i the ijth, 16th, and lyth centuries (3 vols., 
1855-56). 

II. General Works upon the Reformation. Robert- 
son's History of Charles V. Edited by W. H. Prescott, 
with supplement on the Cloister Life of the Emperor (3 
vols., 1856). Robertson prefixes to his work an Essay 

Q 



242 Notes on Books in English 

on the state of Europe at the accession of Charles. 
Prescott's History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isa~ 
bella, exhibits the causes which gave its peculiar tone to 
Spanish Catholicism, prior to the sixteenth century. 
Ranke, History of the Popes of Rome during the six- 
teenth and seventeenth centuries. Translated by Sarah 
Austin, (3 vols., 1867). This is a work of the highest 
value. Hausser, The Period of the Reformation, 1517- 
1648. Translated from the German by Mrs. G. Sturges 
(New York, 1874) is a very able series of historical lec- 
tures, and is especially valuable for the political side of 
the history of this period. Guizot's Lectures on the His- 
tory of Civilization contain two chapters on the Re- 
formation and its consequences. D'Aubigne's History 
of the Reformation is a full, detailed narrative, in a viva- 
cious style, by a warm advocate of Protestantism. On 
the Catholic side is Spaulding's History of the Reforma- 
tion (Baltimore, 1866). Balmes, Protestantism and Cath- 
olicity compared in their effects on Civilization : trans- 
lated from the Spanish (1851), is a voluminous polemi- 
cal book, by a Spanish Priest, in reply to Guizot's 
Lectures on Civilization. The Reformation, by G. P. 
Fisher, is designed "to present to intelligent and edu- 
cated readers the means of acquainting themselves" 
with the Reformation, in its various aspects (1 vol., 

1873). m 

The ivth vol. of Gieseler's Church History (in the 
American Edition) is an extremely learned and satisfac- 
tory account of the Reformation ; but it is adapted to 
scholars, and not to the general reader. Hardwick's 
History of the Reformation is likewise intended for 
scholars and theologians, and is written by a decided 
adherent of the Church of England. The chapters on 
the Reformation in Hase's Church History are less 



Relating to the Reformation. 243 

scholastic, but are still specially adapted to the theologi- 
cal scholar. Waddington's History of the Refor?nation, 
is a carefully written, impartial narrative, of a more 
popular character ; but it extends only to the death of 
Luther. 

III. Works upon the Reformation in the several coun- 
tries, (a) Germany. At the head of the list belongs 
Ranke's History of Germany in the Period of the Re- 
formation : translated in part, by Sarah Austin, (3 vols., 
1845-47). Michelet's Life of Luther (1 vol.), and Table- 
Talk of Luther, are both translated in Bonn's Library. 
The Life of Luther by Barnas Sears (8 vo., 1850), is 
brief, but founded on an extensive knowledge of the 
sources. 

{b) Switzerland. Christoffel's Zwingli, or the Rise of 
the Reformation in Switzerland, is one of the latest 
biographies of the Zurich Reformer. The Life of Cal- 
vin, by Beza, translated from the Latin by Gibson 
(Philad., 1836), is one of the original documents relating 
to the subject. The Life of Calvin by Dyer (1849) 1S 
accurate and impartial. The most copious and com- 
plete of the biographies of Calvin is by Henry, trans- 
lated from the> German by Stebbing (3 vols., 1844). 
The Letters of Calvin, edited by Bonnet, translated in 
2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1856-57), are important. There is 
an English translation of all of Calvin's Writings, in 
52 vols. (Edinburgh, 1856-57). 

(e) Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Dunham, His- 
tory of these countries (in Lardner's Cab. Cycl., 1840). 
Geijer, History of Sweden, translated by Turner (1845). 

(d) Bohemia and Moravia. The Reformation and 
Anti-Refotmatio7i in Bohemia (2 vols., London, 1845.) 

(d) Poland. Krasinski, History of the Reformation in 
Poland (2 vols., London, 1840). By the same Author, 



244 Notes on Books in English 

Sketch of the Religious History of the Slavonic Nations 
(Edinburgh, 185 1). 

(e) France. The chapters, on the Reformation, in 
Michelet's General History of France, are correct and 
animated. The Student's History of France (1 vol. f 
8vo., 1862) gives a brief narrative of the Reformation 
and the Civil Wars. Ranke's History of France, espe- 
cially in the 16th a7id 17th centuries, is translated in part 
under the title, History of Civil Wars and Monarchy in 
France, London, 1852. The whole work, like the rest 
of the series by Ranke on this era, is masterly. Among 
the other valuable works on the French Reformation, 
are De Felice, History of French Protestants, translated 
by Lobdell (1851). W. S. Browning, History of the 
Huguenots in the 16th century (3 vols., 1829-39). [Mrs. 
Marsh], History of the Huguenots (2 vols., 1847). Due 
D'Aumale, Lives of the Princes of Conde (vol. i. and ii., 
London, 1872). H. White, The Massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew, preceded by a narrative of the religious wars 
(London, 1868). This one of the best of the histories 
of this period ; it gives interesting details. 

(/) Netherlands. Brandt, History of the Reformation 
in the Netherlands (4 vols., 4to.). Engl, translation 
(London, 1720). Brandt is the learned Arminian histo- 
rian. His voluminous work is highly prized by scholars. 
Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic, 3 vols. (New York, 
1856). Prescott, History of Philip IL. (3 vols., 1855.) 

(g) England. The works of the English Reformers 
have been published by the Parker Society, in 54 vols., 
with a general index. The general histories of England 
treat of the Reformation ; as Macaulay (in his Introduc- 
tory Chapter) — also, in his reviews of Ranke, and Hal- 
lam ; Hume, Lingard, from the Roman Catholic point 
of view; Froude, etc. Hallam's Constitutional Histon 



Relating to the Reformation. 245 

is an authority of the first rank on all legal and constitu* 
tional questions connected with the rise and progress of 
Protestantism in England, and is instructive on collat- 
eral points. Burnet's History of the Refortnation, is the 
work of an honest writer, with extraordinary means of 
knowledge, but sometimes swayed by prejudice. The 
biographical and historical writings of Strype are of 
great value to the student who wishes to make a thor- 
ough study of the English Reformation. Massingberd's 
History of the E?iglish Reformation has passed through 
many editions. It is concise. J. H. Blunt, in his his- 
tory of the Reformation to the death of Wolsey, 1514-47 
(London, 1872) represents the conservative, or High 
Church opinions. He bestows much praise upon Wol- 
sey and his ideas of Reform. Neal's History of the 
Puritans from the Reformation to the death of Queen 
Elizabeth, is a learned account of the Reformation from 
the Puritan standing-point. Bacon's Genesis of the New 
Engtand Churches is a narrative of the rise of Indepen- 
dency, and of the migration of the Pilgrims to Ply- 
mouth. 

(h) Scotland. The History of the Reformation, by John 
Knox himself, is one of the principal sources of informa- 
tion. Robertson, History of Scotland during the reigns 
of Mary and James VI. , etc. McCrie's Life of John Knox 
is highly instructive. Burton, History of Scotland to 1688. 
This is the most recent, and probably the best of the 
histories of Scotland. It is full upon the Reformation. 

(2) Italy. McCrie's History of the Reformation in 
Italy, is a standard work. M. Young's Life of Paleario 
(2 vols.,, i860) throws light upon the history of Italian 
Protestantism. 

(/) Spain. McCrie's History of the Reformation in 
Spain is the best work on the subject. Prescott's His- 



246 Notes on Books Relating to the Reformation. 

tory of Philip II. Ticknor's History of Spanish Litera* 
ture, and Llorente's Eistory of the Inquisition in Spain, 
may be consulted with profit. 

In addition to the foregoing titles, may be mentioned 
Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent, Ranke's History 
of the Popes, Hiibner's Life of Pope Sixtus V., Stein- 
metz's History of the Jesuits, Isaac Taylor, Loyola and 
Jesuitism iu its Rudiments. These works bear on the 
rise and progress of the Catholic Reaction. 

publisher's note. 
A full list of " Works in general history relating to the Period of 
the Reformation," giving the titles in full, will be found in the 
History of the Reformation by Prof. Fisher. Those who may 
desire to pursue the study of this Era in any particular direction 
beyond the limits indicated above, will find all necessary aid in the 
list named. 



INDEX. 



CAM 

ADRIAN VI., 154, i5S, i79» 2o6 
Aleander, Papal nuncio, 105, 

109, 118, 130 
Alexander VI., 24, 26, 37, 73, 7 8 , 2 °5 
Alsace, see Elsass 
Alva, Duke of, 200 
America, discovery of, 4 
Anne of Cleves, 194 
Armada, the Spanish, 200, 215 
Arthur, Prince of Wales, 54, 173 
Astrology, 229 
Augsburg confession, 169 
Augsburg, peace of, 171 
Augustine, St., theology of, 98, 99, 

106 



B 



AMBERG, bishop of, 230 

Bavaria, rising of peasants in, 

149 
Berlichingen, see Gotz v 
Berne revolts from Rome, 165 
Bible, English version of, 185, 192, 

221 ; German, 135, 221 ; French, 

221 
Boheim, Hans, 62 
Boleyn, Anne, 180, 184 ; marriage of, 

184 ; beheaded, 193 
Borgia, Caesar, 24, 26, 73, 75 
Bosworth, battle of, 52 
Bouibon, Duke of, 155, 157. *79 
Buckingham, execution of, 176 
Bundschuh, the, 63, 115, 117, 128, 138, 

144 

CABOT, Sebastian, 4, 56 
Calvin, John, 202, 205 ; influ- 
ence of writings of, 221 
Cambray, league of, 131 



DEN 

Campeggio, 180 

Capets, dynasty of the, 42 

(Jappel, peace of, 165 

Caraffa, cardinal, 212 

Carinthia, rising of the peasantry in, 

149, 151 
Carlstadt, 136, 137, 141, 142, *45» 14* 
Casimir, Markgraf, 146, 148 
Catherine of Arragon, 54, 90, 132, 173 

174, 175, 176, 180; death of, 193. 
Catherine de Medici, 217 
Celibacy of the clergy, influence of, 

223 
Charles V., 30, 39, 103, 113-135, J 54i 

155, 166-171, 175, 179, 180, 195, 196, 

200, 213 
Charles VIII. of France, 26, 37, 46, 

73 
Christian II., 199 

Christian Prince, of Erasmus, 93, 100 
Civilization, character of modern, 5 
Clement VII., 155, 160, 179, 206 
Colet, John, 78-97, 101, 183, 190, 222 

229 
Columbus, 4, 37, 41, 56 
Commerce, 3, 18, 21, 233-237 
Contarini, Gasper, 207, 208 
Contarini, the younger, 212 
Copernicus, Nicolas, 232 
Cranach, Lucas, 119, 120 
Crammer, 184, 193, 197 
Criminal law, cruelty of, 230 
Cromwell, Oliver, 204 
Cromwell, Thomas, 191-193 
Crusades, the influence of, 3, 17 

DANTE, 23 
Denmark, revolt of, from Rome, 
199-200 

247 



248 



Index. 



GRO 

Diets, German, 30 (see Worms, 

Spires, Ratisbon) 
Dudley (minister of Henry VII.) 82- 

84 



EDWARD VI., 194 
Elizabeth, princess (afterwards 

queen), 193 
Elsass, rising of peasants in. 63, 149 
Empson (minister of Henry VII.), 83, 

84 
England under Henry VII., 48-57 

76-84 ; under Henry VIII., 84-92 

132-133, 155-156, 171-19 8 
Erasmus, 81-85, 93, 100, 101, 103, 104, 

no, 113, 134, 153, 177-178, 190, 207, 

226, 229 



FERDINAND and Isabella, 4, 27, 
36,37,88-91,104, 174 
Feudinand I. of Austria, 170 
Feudal system, 16, 20, 29, 31, 233-237 

(see Serfdom) 
Ficino, 70, 75, 77, 229 
Field of the cloth of gold, 133 
Fisher, Bishop, sent to the Tower, 

187, 207 
Flodden, battle of, 90 
Florence, 26, 68-76 
Forest cantons of Switzerland, 165 
France, 41-48, 88-92, 132-135, 154- 

157, 169-196, 216-217 
Francis I., 28,91, 101, 103, 132, 133, 

154-157, 208, 216 
Franconia, rebellion of peasants in, 

62, 145 
Franz von Sickingen, 31, 113-115, 118, 

128, 129, 138-140 
Frederic of Saxony, 101, 102-135, 138 
Frundsberg, General, 125, 151, 155, 157 



GALILEO, 233 
Genevan reformers, the, 201- 

214 
Germany 27-35, 59-68, 97-154, 166- 

171, 220 
Geyer, Florian, 143, 148 
Gold mines of new world, effect of 

discovery of, 234 
Gonsalve de Cordova, 27 
Gotz von Eerlichingen, 31, 113, 149 
Granada, conquest of, 4, 36 
Graubund, the, 63 
Grocyn, 81. 



LUT 

Grotius, Hugo, 220 
Guicciardini, 24 
Gustavus Adolphus, 199 
Gustavus Vasa, 199 



HANSE Towns, 18, 33 
Helfenstein, Count ron, 143, 

145 
Henry VII., 52-57, 83-84, 173-174 
Henry VIII., 27, 28, 44, 82-92, 10c— 

104, 132-133,154, 172-199, 220 
Heresy, 185-186, 225 
Hermann, 162 
Hesse, Philip of, 170 
Hipler, Wendel, 143 
Holy Alliance, the, 88 
Howard, Admiral, 90 
Howard, Catherine, 195 
Huguenots, the, 204-205, 217 
Humanists, 71, 77, 206 
Huss, John, 14, 62, 106, 119, 123, 127 
Hutten, Ulrich von, 113-115, 118-123, 

128-130, 138-140 



INDULGENCES, sale of, 100-103 
Infanta of Portugal, 133, 156, 180 
Innocent VIII., 73 
' Inquisition,' the, 39, 213, 215 
Italian reformers, 201-208 
Italy, 12-27 ( see Rome and Popes) 



JEROME of Prague, 14 

J Jesuits, order of, 208-312, 222 

Johanna of Castile, 38 

Joss Fritz, 64-65, 117, 137-138 

Julius II., 27, 88-89, J 74 

KEMPTEN, peasants' rebellion 
in, 63 
Kepler, 233 
Knox, John, 204-205, 222 

LAMBERT SIMNEL, 53 
Leo X., 27, 89, 100-154, 170 

206 
Lilly, 84, 87 
Linacre, 81 
Lollards, 15, 88, 178 
Louis XI. of France, 43 
Louis XII., 27, 88, 91 
Loyola, Ignatius, 208-212 
Luther, Martin, 97-135, 152, 166, 167- 

170, 177, 208, 221, 229. 230 



Index. 



249 



POL 

MACHIAVELLI, 19,22, 25, 43, 
46, 75, 163 
Magellan, 227 

Marignano, battle of, 91, 132 
Mary, princess, afterwards queen, 

*33, T-5&, 175, I7 6 , *79» T 9 6 > 2 °° 
Maximilian, emperor, 19, 29, 38, 64, 

89, 103 
Medici, Cosmo de', 69, 70 
Medici, Lorenzo de', 69, 70, 72, 155 
Medici, Catherine de', 217 
Melanchthon, Philip, 103, 109-111, 

121, 136, 168-169,208, 230 
Michael Angelo, 69 
Milan. 26, 42, 132, 154 
Mohammedan power, the, 2, 4, 35 

168, 169 
Monasteries, dissolution of, 191 192 
Moors, in Spain, 2, 4, 35 
More, Sir Thomas, 82-97, 172, 176- 

178, 186-190, 226, 229 
Morgarten, battle of, 61 
Morton, Cardinal, 55, 183, 205 
Miinzer, 136, 141, 142, 150 



NANTES, edict of, 217 
Naples, 26, 42, 132 
Netherlands, revolt of from Rome, 

200, 201 
New Testament of Erasmus, 94, 185, 
190 ; of Tindal, see Tindal 



OXFORD Reformers, 76-97, 176 
177, 190, 225, (see Colet, Eras- 
mus, More) 



PARR, Queen Catherine, 195 
Pavia, battle of, 155, 179 

Paul III., 207, 208, 213 

Paul IV., 213 

Peasants' war, 140, 152, 177 

Peasantry, condition of in England, 
50, 233-237 ; in France, 45 and 235, 
237 ; in Germany, see Serfdom 

Perkin Warbeck, 53 

Petrarch, 23 

Philip de Commines, 45 

Philip II. of Spain, 38, 170, 196,201 
214 

Pico della Mirandola, 70, 9. 72, 229 

Pilgrimage of Grace, 193 

Pilgrim fathers, 222, 204-205 

Pole, Reginald, 194, 206, 212 

Politian, 70 



SWX 
Popes of Rome, 24-27, 206, and see 

Innocent VIII., Alexander VI., 

Julius II., Leo X., Adrian VI., 

Paul III., Paul IV. 
' Praise of Folly ' of Erasmus, 85, 101, 

"3, 19 1 
' Prince, The,' of Machiavelli, 76 
Printing, invention of, 4 
Protestants, origin of name of, 168 
Puritans, the, 204, 217, 226 

RATISBON, Diet of, 169, 208 
Revival of learning, 3, 68, 78 
Revolts from Rome— in England, 

1 71-198 
— in Germany, 166-170 
— in Switzerland. 163-166 
— in Denmark and Sweden, 199 
— in the Netherlands, 200 
Richard III., 52-53 
Rohrbach, liule Jack, 144 
Roman Catholic Church, 8 
Roman civilization, 6 
Rome, 8,22-27 ; sack of, 154-156 
Roper, Margaret, 187 
Rothenburg, peasants' war at, 146- 

149 

SICKINGEN, see Franz 
St. Bartholomew, massacre of, 

217 
St. Paul's school, founded by Colet, 86 
Savonarola Girolamo, 72-75', 78, 121, 

222 
Saxony, John of, 167, 169 
Schmalkalden, league of, 169, 170 
Scientific inquiry, beginnings of, 231 
Scientific knowledge, 227 
Scholastic system, the, 12-16, 77 
Serfdom in Germany, 20, 33-4, 58-66 

140-153, 231 
Serfdom in France, 20, 45-47, 234 
Serfdom in England, 20, 234-236 
Servetus, 203, 226 
Slavery and slave trade, 41 
Spain, 35-41, 214-215, and see Charles 

Spalatin, 109, no, 115, 122, 123 
Spires, Diets of, 156, 157, 167-168 
Spurs, battle of the, 90 
Storch, Claus, 136, 137, 142 
Swabia, insurrection of peasants in, 

141-143 
Swabian league, the, 66, 141-143 
Sweden, revolt from Rome of, 199-201 
Switzerland, 61, 163 



250 



Index. 



VAL 

TETZEL, 102 
Thirty Years' War, 167, 171, 

200, 216 
Thuringia, insurrection of peasants 

in, 150 
Tindall, William, 185, 193, 222 
Trent, Council of, 208, 212-214 
Truchsess, George, 143, 145,151 
Tycho Brahe, 233 
Tyrol, rising of peasants in the, 151- 

152 

ULRICH VON HUTTEN, see 
Hutten 
Ulrich, D., of Wiirtemberg, 66 
United Provinces, the, 201 
Universe, ideas of the, 228 
Universities, 14 
Universities of England visited and 

reformed, 192 
Utopia, More's, 94, 96, 100, 172, 185 

226 

VALDEZ, JUAN DE, 60. 157, 206 
Valdez. Alphonse de. secretary 
of Charles V., 131 



ZWI 

Vasco de Gama, 4 

Venice, 25 

Vienna besieged by the Turks, 168 



VX7ARTBURG, castle of the, 130, 

Weinsburg, the piper of, 143-146 

Wiclif, 14, 62, 106 

Witchcraft, belief in, 230 

Wi tenbeig Reformers {see Luther 

and Melanchthon) 
Wolsey, 89, 92, 154, 155,178-184, 197, 

205 
Worms, Diet of, 115-135, 156, 167, 169, 

170, 172 



XAVIER, FRANCIS, 210 
Ximenes, cardinal, 39, 154, 
205 

ZURICH revolts from Rome, 165 
Zwickau, prophets of, 136- 

Zwingle, Uirich, 164-165, *» 



Manual of Mythology 

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